Child of Magic
by Phantos God of Horrors
Summary: 5 years. 5 years of traveling across the country, under the protection of a goddess and her orders to protect demigods. None stayed with him, and no one else did either. He just had himself to be, with the occasional visits from his favorite Olympian and the younglings he protected. "Might as well break the pattern now," Percy thought to himself. "No harm in being a star."
1. Chapter 1

**Welcome to the first chapter of the revisited Child of Magic story. If you don't follow my Warriors of Olympus story, I did mention in one of the recent chapters that I would be rewriting all the other stories, fixing them and changing them into something I find better. General ideas and characters won't change. Just how everything goes about is going to be different until these rewrites catch up and push further into their stories.**

 **Now, while most of this chapter is dialogue, I want it to be this way so I can mention something about my writing, and that is the different kinds of Percys I'm going to be writing. Three of my stories are going to be AU of the PJOU, and I want the Percys in them to be different from one another, and the biggest difference will be in how they act. I want them to be seen as different, have them talk and move differently, and just be something different from the others. I don't want to just have the same Percy exist under different circumstances.**

 **The Warriors of Olympus Percy will be more open, witty, and sarcastic. His interactions with J should be enough to show how he'll be acting.**

 **The Child of Magic Percy here will be straightforward, less outgoing, and more conservative in his actions. The next two or so chapters will better portray my vision of what this Percy will be like.**

 **The Percy:Betrayed and Forgotten Percy will be rude, blunt, and less interactive than the other two. When the rewrites for that story start releasing, that side of him will be apparent when he gets older.**

 **If you are unhappy with how I'm approaching my stories with more rewrites, it's because I am unhappy with how I've written them. I don't want to keep updating the chapters until they're the way i want them to be, because that messes up a lot with the story already set in that place, and I am not going to continue from the messes i left off at. I will be starting anew to make amends and fix what has been broken.**

 **I do hope those of you from the original story understand and do enjoy this rewritten take on the story. Thank you for your time.**

* * *

Percy sighed and looked down the tree to the boy below him, wiggling his fingers as fire danced between them. The boy didn't look up to meet his gaze: he just kept his eyes on the fire.

"So," Percy drew the word out, slowly lifting his gaze back up to the sky seen through the leaves, "you're a child of Hecate?"

"Yep," the boy replied, moving the fire up his hand to burn over his fingertips.

"I'll be honest, I always found it weird that you and your siblings don't need wands to perform your magic." The boy let out a soft laugh, extinguishing the flames and leaning back against the tree.

"Yeah, I get it." The boy laughed again through his lips. "I thought I had to use one to use my powers, and I'm still beyond surprised I don't need one. Although I do kinda want to use one."

"Why?" Percy slung his legs over the side of the branch and turned his body to look down at the boy through his lap. "Have you ever tried using one before? And heck, how do you even make one?"

"Have not and don't know, for the last two questions." The boy finally looked up to meet Percy's gaze. "And as to why, to trick people. You use a pen that turns into a sword, which I've seen surprise the monsters sometimes. Maybe I should use a wand to trick enemies into thinking that I need to have one to use my powers."

"That sounds smart. Though I think that's kind of unnecessary." Percy wiped a hand around his mouth. "Since it serves nothing more than as a trick, it probably won't last you forever. Monsters do reform and return, so they're bound to remember and share that information if they find it out. Could be a big risk further down the line if you get to confident in your trick."

For a moment the boy said nothing. He stared up at his guide for many more moments before sighing and lowering his gaze. "That makes sense," he spoke out softly. "A blessing and a curse."

"You still talking about the wand or have you moved onto our daily lives?" Snickers broke out from the boy, which drew some from Percy as well. "That phrase does summarize what we have to go through."

"True," the boy responded, still snickering. "How much longer do you think it will be until we get to where you're taking me? Which, by the way, you still haven't told me about, other than it's a safe camp."

"Oh, I haven't?" Percy scratched the back of his neck, blushing slightly. "Sorry. I've actually done that the last three times. I wish I knew why I keep forgetting to do that.

"So we're headed to a camp, as you know. It's called Camp Half-Blood. It's a bordered camp, which means monsters can't get in on their own. There are cabins for everyone, depending on your godly parent. There used to only be twelve cabins, for the twelve Olympian gods, but after the war, work began on making cabins to represent all the Greek gods."

"Wait, there was a war?" Percy blinked in surprise from the boy's sudden question, cutting off the last two words to his sentence.

"Oh, right, forgot to tell you that too. It was the second Titan war. Kronos was rising again. A lot of monsters, Titans and demigods who felt betrayed by those around them and the Olympians worked together on resurrecting him and taking control of Mount Olympus. They thought it would help get them recognition. It wasn't the best way to go about it, but I understand what they were getting at. And after Kronos was defeated, the gods swore on the River Styx to bring more attention to their children and all the demigod children. You included."

The boy sat in silence, digesting what he was being told.

"Although you were supposed to be recognized and introduced to the world at 13, and brought to camp by then too. That was part of the deal."

"I met my mom when I was twelve though," the boy interrupted. "She visited my dad and I on my birthday and explained… most of who she was and what I was. Wasn't the best birthday, but it wasn't the worst either."

"Well you're four years late coming to camp."

"How long ago was the deal made?"

"Five. You were probably eleven, then, I guess. Lady Hecate probably kept you hidden because of her place in the war. Didn't want you getting involved and hurt."

"That is what she said."

"Oh, alright, good." Percy paused for a moment, looking ahead at the other trees around them. "Where was I?"

"Cabins for everyone."

"Right, right, right." Percy rubbed his hands together. "So, near everyone is represented at camp. I think a few cabins are still being built, surprisingly, but you should have yours available. There was one there the last time I checked. The main camp leaders are Chiron, the centaur from the old legends, and Mr. D, which is what he goes by since he is a god and gods don't like it too often when they're talked about."

"Which god?"

"God of wine."

"…Oh, I know who you're talking about now."

"Good. The camp provides beds, food, showers, bathrooms, sparing and war gear and weapons, various group and individual activities. Every Friday, the camp holds a Capture the Flag game, pitting one half the camp against the other half. Some cabins get well together with others so they'll always be on the same team, but others will jump back and forth depending on how well they got along the week leading up to it. The gods don't really visit camp; it's rare that they do, aside from Mr. D. The most you'll have to deal with is other campers, mythical creatures like nymphs and satyrs. Oh, and harpies. There is a curfew, and it is best you follow it so the harpies don't get to you. And that's about it."

"I thought you said it was a safe camp," the boy frowned up at Percy.

"It is. They're meant to protect sleeping campers from monsters in the night, and capture campers sneaking around in the case they're transpiring against up."

The boy hummed and looked back down. "I'll make sure not to trans-whatever, then."

"It's a fancier word for plotting and betraying."

"…Okay that makes some sense." The two sat in comfortable silence following, neither looking each other, but ahead in the directions they faced. "Can I ask you a question, Percy?"

"Sure. What about?"

"Do you stay at that camp?" Percy mirrored the boy's frown from earlier as the question was asked. "You say you do this a lot – going around and finding demigods to bring to camp. Do you, like, stop there for a rest before going after the next?"

Percy didn't respond right away. His elbow dropped on his knee and his chin in his palm, lost in thought trying to think of a response. He was, actually, never asked that before while guiding a soon-to-be camper.

"I…" Percy hesitated as he began his response. "A while back, I got into a…disagreement, you could say, with other people at the camp. It was a big falling out that put me and them on bad terms. I thought it safer to leave camp and not stay there anymore."

"Do you not have a family to go home to?"

"I do, but demigods have a scent to them that can attract monsters and being a child of the major gods means our scent is stronger than others and being a child of the eldest six puts us in even more danger, and that includes the ones around us. I didn't want to put that sort of stress on my mom, so I decided to do this instead."

"You've been picking up kids ever since then?"

Percy shook his head. "No, it took me some time to figure out what to do, what I wanted to do. It was someone else who gave me the guidance to do this, and it's the same goddess who gave me my food making abilities. It's thanks to her I have something to do with my life, and I'm happy it's this. Would have been a boring five years if it wasn't for her."

"If you've been doing nothing but this for the past five years, I think you'd still be bored out of your mind."

Percy shared another laugh with the boy.

"Why do all this alone? You have to have, like, one friend still, right? Someone to keep doing this with, instead of being by yourself all this time? Not even a girlfriend."

Percy scoffed. "I had a girlfriend, but she was part of the group I had a fallout with. And I do still have some friends, but none of them have the time in their life to join me in what I'm doing. We all have important roles to fill. And this is mine."

"How old are you again?"

"22."

"And yet you still don't have a new girlfriend to travel the country with? Speaking of which, how far do you even go to find others? And how the heck have you been doing this for five years straight? Have you ever run into the people from camp during this time? How angry are they with you, even? A part of me feels like they should be chasing you down."

Percy rubbed his palms to his temple. "That's a lot of questions."

"How many can you answer?"

"All of them. I…I did have a crush on someone else, but…she died, a long while back. I never got to really do anything with her to know her better. She was gone too soon. And everyone I meet like you is too young to date and I don't want to put the strain on someone else that I would have my mother because of my scent.

"I don't usually leave the state; the camp has satyrs go across the country to pick up demigods and bring them to camp. Sometimes, on special occasions, I'll be sent out of state to pick someone up, and bring them back to camp either quickly or over time, depending on how much time they need to adjust to their midlife crisis of being a child of a god.

"And to answer your last question I don't think anyone cares." The boy furrowed his eyebrows up at Percy. "I've been gone for five years but the only people I've come across are the people I'm still friends with, but other than that I've seen no one. I thought, maybe they would send people to drag me back to camp, to keep me around and continue to help them, but no one's come. I don't think they care about me anymore. I think they've pushed me back and are fine with my absence. I never even asked my friends about how everyone else is. It isn't something I usually want to know."

Percy dropped from his branch onto one below, just a few inches, climbing down the short distance to the surface and the boy with him. "But, I don't mind too much, I guess. It hurt, being all alone at first, but that's no longer the case, and I'm happy for that. What time is it anyways?" The two boys look up at the sky, looking anywhere but the sun just to take in its position.

"I think it is past noon. Should we push on ahead?" The boy lowered his hand and looked around.

"I believe some lunch is in order first. Come on, let's find a restaurant or something this time. Eating in the woods gets old when it's all I do."

"Do you even have money to pay for it?"

"Of course I do." Percy turned on his heels and began walking, the boy tailing beside him. "I am given an allowance from my patron. She believes I need to spoil myself every now and again. I don't. But I do like using it for things like this, just to help the demigods I'm with feel more comfortable with me and with the world around them."

"Alright, if you're sure."

"I am."


	2. Chapter 2

"I don't think I want to go to the camp."

"Hm?" Percy looked across the booth mid chew in his burger. The boy he was guiding was poking at the chicken tenders left on his plate, frowning as he did so. Percy gulped down his bite and set the burger back on the plate. "Why do you say that?"

"Just… because… What did you do, to make the rest of the camp hate you and drive you out?" The boy looked up at him, each of his facial features drooping down his face. "You're not a bad person, at all. You've been nothing but kind to me, and apparently to everyone else you've ever met. What could you have possibly done to make them hate you enough to drive you away?"

"It…" Percy turned away, unable to look the boy in the eyes. "It's complicated."

"I doubt that. I doubt there is anything in the world someone like you could have done to make all those people hate you. I-It just doesn't make any sense. What the hell is wrong with them to hate someone like you? You've made them sound like nothing but bad people, and yet you're still taking me to them. What the hell?"

Percy lowered his head to hide the blush from the praise the boy led with, but also to avoid the eye contact of the people around them when the boy began raising his voice.

"Look, they're not… They're not bad people. They're not villains or anything like that. The camp is a place you have to go to. It's important that you go there, just so you can live. I can't teach you anything about your magic, but the Hecate cabin can. And the Hecate cabin is going to treat you like the brother you are to them. The camp is one of the nicest and safest places in the world. You're going to be treated like family. I promise you."

"And yet they're not treating you like that."

"Well… some of them are justified, in how they feel about me." Percy traced a thumb against his wrist. "I doubt a majority of the camp despises me, but I do know there are people there very mad with me, and it's not their fault that they do." He looked up, finally looking the boy in the eyes and steeling his gaze to him. "Look, I get that I haven't given them much praise, but I don't want you to hate them when you get there. There's probably a lot of new campers I've never even met that don't even know who I am or have an opinion either way about me, and I want to make sure you're not going to blame people like them for others being angry with me, alright? You're… it's… I have to take you to the camp. For your safety."

The two sat in an uncomfortable silence, the only sound between them being the chewing of their food. The boy darted his eyes between his plate and Percy, while Percy kept his gaze down at his own plate of food.

"Is there any other place you can take me?"

"… There is a second camp. In California. But it's a Roman camp. Yes, Roman demigods do exist. The gods have split personalities. But you're a Greek. You called your mother by her Greek name, and you've talked about the other gods and goddesses with their Greek names. The two camps were made on opposite sides of the country because of a feud between them, and I haven't seen signs that they're getting along much better than before. You'd be safer and treated better at the Greek camp. And besides, it is people in both camps who hate me, so it's not like going there will get you away from the people who know me."

The boy kept his mouth shut after that, only opening it to finish his meal. Percy paid for their meal once finished, and walked back out the diner with the boy, making their way down the street.

"Do you…" Percy turned his head to the boy as he began speaking again, though the boy kept his gaze down at the pavement. "Do you have any siblings at the camp?"

The son of Poseidon stayed silent for a moment before nodding. "Yes. A brother and a sister, as far as I know. I'm only on good terms with the sister, but I don't talk to her all that often. I haven't talked with her in months. She's about your age."

"Maybe I'll find solace in her then. Some sort of saving grace to make me feel better while I'm there."

Percy smiled towards the boy and patted him on the closest shoulder. "I think she would appreciate the company. Being a child of the big three does kind of single her out from the rest of the camp. It did for me when I first went there. Thank you."

"Thank you. For all that you've done. I'm sorry about earlier."

"You don't have anything to be sorry for." Percy's smile softened. "You did nothing but ask questions, and I had to give you the answers. You didn't offend me or overstep any boundaries, so don't worry about it, okay?"

"Fine."

"Good, now come on. We got some ground to cover. Maybe will get to camp tomorrow if we're lucky."

* * *

Percy gazed quietly at the constellation of the huntress, sitting above him in the night sky. Over time, it grew not only to be his favorite, but also to be that of which could calm him. To remind him of his friends and those that still cared for him. To remind him that he's doing good in the world.

And to remind him of his failures from that quest.

He didn't want to think about it, but he couldn't help himself. He was mad at himself, taking the weight of the blame on his shoulders the way he did the sky. It was his fault Bianca had died, for it was his idea that she took action of. It was his fault Zoë has died, for he was foolish in not having tried more to heal her and keep her alive, making the prophecy's line of falling by a parent's hand more literal than foreboding. Two death, of two good people, on a quest he wasn't supposed to be on, but joined anyways and all he could feel was regret for his stupid actions.

A soft brushing of his hair dragged Percy out of his thoughts. His head had moved off the grass, and positioned onto something soft and warm. The hand than combed through his hair was warmer, but it was soothing and loving and Percy could recognize who was with him without having to look at the goddess' face.

"Hello Lady Hestia," he spoke softly, keeping quiet to let the boy traveling with him get his sleep.

Hestia smiled down at the demigod. "Good evening, Percy," she responded in a soft tone to match his.

"What may I do for you, my lady? It isn't often you come to visit me when I'm guiding a child to camp."

"I heard your thoughts, Percy." He frowned slightly at her. "And I could see the pain on your face, and I could feel the aching of your heart. You shouldn't think like that. It isn't your fault."

"Yes it is," he countered almost immediately. "I could have prevented either of their deaths–"

"But you couldn't prevent them both without losing your own life in the process too. You are not the ones that killed them, Percy. You aren't a killer, Perseus, not of the innocent. You protected and saved many of their lives."

"And I could have saved more–"

"And we would have lost you if you tried." Percy sighed as Hestia continue to shut him down. "You can't cave everyone, Percy, no one can. Not even the gods can. Don't blame yourself for something that isn't your fault. Blame those who took them from you. It's their fault they're gone, not yours."

"But I am–" Hestia cut him off by placing a hand over his mouth. She wasn't rough, wasn't angry, wasn't rude, and Percy could tell she wasn't going to be anytime soon as her other hand continued to stroke his hair.

"I am proud of what you've become," she spoke softly. "You're an amazing demigod, hero, and role model to those who meet you. You've protected and saved so many lives, and you continue to save more and more. Don't think of yourself as less than you are, Percy. You are the greatest hero Olympus has ever had, and we are all proud of you. Your father especially is overjoyed with what you've become. Even Zeus gives your praise for the hard work and courage and heart you've shown the other demigods." Her hand paused half way through a brush, her fingers resting between the locks of his hair. "Get your sleep, Percy. You'll get to camp soon, and afterwards, we can chat again. I promise you."

Percy nodded slightly, keeping his gaze up at the goddess sitting beside him. "Good night, Lady Hestia," he told her softly, once she removed her hand from his mouth. "And thank you, again, for everything you've given me."

She doesn't say anything more. She nods, and then she's gone, and in the place of her lap is a pillow for Percy's head. He accepts the gift, closes his eyes, and does his best to fall asleep for the day ahead.

Up above, in the night sky, for a brief moment, Percy thought he could see a smile in the stars.

He was right.


	3. Chapter 3

**Look, I'm only gonna be up for another half hour, and my hand's already bothered from pencil writing 8 pages of text for chapter four to this story, and since it's bothering me, I'm just going to post this now and get it out of the way. Yes, it is short, but the next is going to be much longer, and each chapter from now on should be too. Size of chapters is going to be more consistent and closer to the 5k mark, and further away from the 1k mark.**

 **Also, yes, the old stories have been purged. I said I was going to do it, and I did it. I didn't want them to stay around, personally, since they annoy me so much, so I thought it best to rid my page of them. I have taken my notes on them into consideration when making these rewrites, so worry not about that, if there were pieces that interested you in the others. They're gonna stay, somewhat, just be rewritten in a new way to better fit this version.**

 **Anywho, let me finish by saying: I'm not in a good spot right now, life wise. It's not something I'll go into detail or bring up again, but it may be something that ruins my schedule of writing these stories, so I can only hope that will never be the case and life will go on smoothly so my writing can do something.**

 **Now enjoy the short chapter of dialogue and interactions.**

* * *

"Are you sure this is the entrance to the camp?"

Percy closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. "Yes, Silver. This is the camp entrance."

"But it's a tree."

"Yes, it's a pine tree. You were expecting a door, I get it. I was too my first time. And no, you don't have to walk through the tree, just walk past it, and you'll have entered the camp."

Silver looked between Percy and the tree, eyeing both cautiously. "Is there anything else I should know about? I got the Pegasi, harpies, satyrs, activities, a god and a centaur running the place, and it's only been a day."

"Well, there's usually a dragon sitting by the tree and watching over the entrance. Not sure why it isn't here right now."

"A dragon?" Silver stomped his foot in the grass as he looked at Percy. "Of all the things you keep from me 'till the end, it's a dragon?"

"…You make a good point. My bad."

"'My bad'? You-" Silver threw his head back and spun in a circle. "This is a dragon we're talking about. Your bad isn't going to cut keeping it from me until the last second."

Percy sighed, slumping his shoulder and shaking his head. "How do I forget stuff like this?"

"Dunno. That's for you to answer."

"Fine. I'll think of something. Do you still have a lighter on you?"

Silver fixed his mouth into a line. "Of course I do. What do you need it for?"

Percy scratched the back of his head with an uneasy smile. "A couple of things, but the main idea is to make an offering to one of the Olympians and I already have the food to do it with, don't worry about that part. I won't burn either of us for it."

Silver stared blankly at Percy as he took out his lighter and handed it over to the older gentleman. Percy flipped it open and on, making sure it worked before walking over to one of the other trees, picking up a small, fallen branch. He placed the flame beneath one end of the stick and held both out towards the younger boy. "Do you mind making it a torch?"

"Uh, no, not at all." Silver raised a hand in the direction of the fire, and the flames grew before engulfing the end of the branch.

"Thanks." The son of Poseidon clicked the lighter shut and set the torch down on the ground before pulling a candy bar from his pocket and dropping it in the fire, all the while tossing the lighter back to its original owner.

"Why are you making an offering right now?"

"End game."

"What end game? Was there even a game to begin with?"

"Ehh, yeah, kinda. Not really. No."

Silver looked at Percy dead in the eyes. "I appreciate everything you've done for me, but you still confuse the hell out of me. I don't understand your choices."

Percy let out a nervous chuckle and opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a third party. The two travelers looked up the hill to see a satyr panicking and making his way down to them from Thalia's pine. Percy smiled and patted Silver on the shoulder. "Cheers, love. The cavalry's here."

The younger of the two snapped his neck looking to Percy. "You did not," he breathed out.

The older demigod looked to him. "I didn't what?"

"…Wait, do you _not_ know what that's from?"

"That's from something?"

"Oh my god."

"Gods. It's plural now."

Silver half-assed a glare Percy's way as the older demigod was working his magic to calm the satyr down and keeping him from freaking out any more at the fire. Percy was able to get it across that everything was fine, and that the fire was just there to summon the satyr down to the two boys.

"Wait, you can do that?" Silver question, putting on hold his crusade to teach Percy what he apparently didn't know.

"No, but Hestia can." The satyr's eyes widened as he stuttered out the goddess' name, complete with honorifics, looking for confirmation that it was her voice he had heard in his head. Percy nodded, sealing the answer.

Silver looked back to the sky again, almost getting lost in one of the clouds and their bunny like shape. "Lady Hestia…is that the goddess you were talking about yesterday?"

"Yes, that was her," Percy vocally confirmed with a nod. "She's my patron goddess." The older demigod blinked twice in succession before he crouched down and picked the torch up off the grass. The satyr asked who he was, and Percy looked to the mythical being as he stood back up.

"Who do I look like to you?"

The third member of the party guessed Poseidon, after a minute of pondering, and only began to fret more as the words came out of his mouth.

"While I'm honored you think I look like him, I most certainly am not my old dad," Percy told him in response. Silver clicked his tongue in his mouth, tilting his head back down to the others around him, pushing away the distracting clouds.

The satyr looked Percy over again, and choked on something before saying aloud the demigod's name.

"The one and only. And I am here again to bring a demigod to the safety of camp, to be taught like the others what he needs to know and how to survive."

"I already know those though," Silver spoke up. "I don't think 'need' really fits the situation."

"And to make friends."

"…Yeah, that would be helpful. Still not sure 'need' is the right word to be using there, though. Thank you anyways."

"Anytime. Now." Percy clapped a hand to his chest just hard enough to make a sound, since his other hand was full of wood and fire. "If you will excuse me, I have places to be, tasks to perform for my patron, and so on so forth. I thank you for coming down to help introduce Silver here to the camp. Do please make sure he finds comfort and happiness while he's here. All of the kids deserve it."

"You are not that older than me, but if you continue to refer to me as kid I will call you old man."

"Fair enough." Percy turned his attention completely back to Silver. "Good luck. Sorry this is a bit brief and short, but I can't stay too close to the camp for too long. Don't want people who hate me coming out to greet me in their own ways. You'll be safe in the camp."

"Yeah, I don't think I want to meet them either." The young teen eyed the satyr beside him carefully, who seemed to be torn between staying to assist and running for back up. "Thanks for taking me here. You _sure_ you'll be safe?"

"I've been safe for the past five years. I can stay safe for another 10 or so. No need to worry."

"I swear you're making these references on purpose."

"Still don't know what you're talking about. Say hi to my sister for me. Make sure she has friends, and try not to punch Max in the face. That's my job."

"Yeah, yeah–wait, who the hell is Max?"

Instead of responding, Percy turned away and waved a hand as he walked in the opposite direction of the camp. Both Silver and the satyr made moves to stop him before he got too, but instead of doing that, Percy disappeared in the flames of the torch as they grew and wrapped around him. One second he was leaving, and the next he was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

**And now this story has a proper chapter that's more action than before to match the heavy dialogue that plagues this story.**

 **If you remember how the last version went, then the changes I'm making have become heavily apparent. I think the one direction I wanted to take this story in was something unique to the Chaos train, so I thought it best to do the one thing they don't do, since they enjoy so much doing it. I'll leave it unsaid here so I don't just spoil it right away.**

 **Question: does my wording and descriptions sound weird, or at least interesting in terms of the imagery it provides? I wanted to be as creative as I could this time around, since I'm messing around with scenarios beyond the human capabilities. And do pardon the intimacy in this chapter. I thought to myself ways of passing to Percy what he gets, and the first image that came to my head was this, and since I wrote a whole poem that messes around with this imagery as well, I saw it best to include it and make it what happens.**

 **Now that this chapter has been completed, this will be all for the story this week. Now I got school and shit to work on. Tune in next week to Red Satoshi when our main character there gets to be with his loving wife and also get yelled at for for ripping the metal out of his body too soon. Thank you for the follow and favs, everyone who reads this story. Good to see people still find interest in this common plot.**

 **And onward we go.**

* * *

Percy looked across the fire to Hestia. His hands rested on his chopsticks that rested on the edge of his bowl as he watched her eat. She didn't have to eat, Percy knew that much, but she still insisted on indulging with him when they spent a meal together. _Food is not necessary for the gods_ , she had told him. _We do not digest like mortals do. We do have taste buds similar to yours, but the sacrifices are more than enough to satisfy us. Eating is but for enjoyment rather than for survival_. Percy didn't question her word.

He gulped down another bunch of his noodles before lowering his bowl down to his lap. "Thank you for spending the rest of the day with me, Lady Hestia," he spoke over the burning embers. "It's always nice to have you around."

Hestia swallowed down, as far as Percy knew she could, a bit of her sandwich and smiled back to her champion. "You know I am always available to visit you, Perseus," she had responded. "You don't have to do too much, so please, whenever you need company, just ask and I shall appear."

"You keep telling me that, you know?"

"And you keep forgetting it." Percy choked on a laugh and Hestia giggled at his reaction. The son of Poseidon only gave a nod alongside the goddess' statement.

"Yeah, sorry about that, my lady. I keep thinking you're busy so I keep forgetting to ask."

"I am never that bust, Percy," she told him as she stood and made her way through the fire and the flames to him, sitting by his side. "Only when the council demands my presence am I unable to accompany you, and that is not often enough for you to fret. I am fine spending the time I don't have with my siblings and their children to spend it with you." Percy blushed and smiled her way, setting his bowl down on the earthen floor.

"You could just barge in if you wanted to, you know. I won't turn you away if you do. I'd be a bigger fool than I already am if I did."

"You are no fool, Percy. And I know that I can, but I want you to be able to take control of the situation and be the one to invite me."

Percy's smile turned soft as he stared at the goddess. He leaned his body back into the grass and looked up into the night sky. "I'll try to keep that in mind next time, my lady."

"I hope that's why we have our next time."

Percy kept his smile as he gazed at the stars, eyes rolling past the clumps and constellations above without ever settling on one. It was a beautiful to sight to him, calming and sobering. The moon shone above the demigod and his goddess. No clouds obscured the sky lights of the night.

The demigod closed his eyes, breathing in the scents of his surroundings. Of himself, of the goddess, of the fire before them and the food they had eaten; Percy let them settle in his mind. His smile grew as he opened his eyes to the night sky, to find the night smiling down at him.

When did the night start wearing suits?

Percy shot up and away from his spot, turning and releasing his sword to the figure that had been standing above him. The man smiled, pushing in all directions the lights that decorated his face as he did so. His eyes of darkness held, in their center, a small yellow orb, unblinking and unwavering at the threat of the sword. The rest of his body was hidden by the suit he wore, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his blazer. Percy was willing they were covered in stars as well.

"Good evening, Perseus," the man spoke, in a voice of deep power yet soft action. "And good evening to you, Lady Hestia."

Said goddess of the hearth and home had moves away as Percy had, though to the side instead of straight forward. She made her way slowly to Percy in a semicircle motion from where she was last seated.

"Who are you?" Percy had demanded, holding his trusty Riptide in front of him and pointed to the night-man.

"It's very bold of you to be asking me anything with that tone of yours, Perseus Jackson," the man began his response, causing Percy to flinch at the use of his full name. "But I shall pay it no mind. It's an expected kind of response for a situation like this. I'll even let you have the first guess as to who I might be."

Hestia took her place beside Percy, giving herself a frontal view of the man who had appeared from the sky. "You don't look like Krios," Percy spoke out loud.

The man tilted his universal head to the boy and the Olympian. "No, I am not him, but I do see where your assumptions come from, so I cannot fault you for it." The man stood straight in his place, moving his starry eyes back to the son-to-be. "Then again, you've never really studied me, have you? I guess not, since what there is regarding me is all but theoretical, and humans put it these days. I never did give away the truths to me before."

Percy grew confused and concerned at the man's evasive words, but apparently they meant something to Hestia, if her reaction was anything to go by.

"Lord Chaos?" Hestia had breathed out, leaving Percy at a loss for words to see his patron at a loss for her own.

"Just Chaos will be fine, my dear," the now named man spoke. "And yes, I am Chaos."

Percy turned his attention back to the man, the grip on his sword flexing. "Chaos…the creator?" the demigod struggled out, mimicking his brain as it tried to piece together where he had heard that word as a name before.

"The one and only. Thank you for not bowing, either of you. I was going to ask you not to anyways."

"I thought you were a level of hell below Tartarus."

"And I could level Tartarus if I so chose to." Any calm air that had been entering their atmosphere had collapsed in a moment. "But for the sake of life on Earth not being thrown into a loop of despair and monster hunting, I choose not to."

"What do you want?" Percy surprised himself, Hestia, and if the raised eyebrow of a dust cloud was an indication Chaos too with his bluntness.

"So straightforward. It would be wrong of me to say I expected otherwise from someone as bold as you, the foundation of the Olympian homes." Chaos removed a hand from his pockets, and pointed the comets of his fingers to Perseus. "I come in peace. I wish to talk to you and, if you accept them, give you offerings."

"Offerings?" Percy lowered his sword slightly to be parallel with his hip. "What kind of offerings?"

"Three really. Very simple ones. You have the choice to deny or accept them, if you so wish to, but I suggest you hear me out first before giving me our answers."

Percy shot his gaze to his side to Hestia, looking to the goddess who had guided him to a new life to do so again. The creator of everything, standing before him, offering him something? It was unreal to Percy, but still real at the same time. Hestia looked back to him to see his pleading gaze, and upon understanding it nodded for his answer.

"Fine," Percy agreed, facing the universe before him and lowering his sword. "I'll hear you out."

"Do you not find it strange how you speak to me, Perseus?" Chaos asked, turning his head slightly. "Many people's first thought is to humble themselves and control their nature in front of the all-powerful."

"Please do not be mad with him, my lord-" Hestia began speaking, but Chaos cut her off with a hand of the galaxy.

"It is quite alright, Hestia. I do not fault him for his tone. It's endearing, especially when so many others panic and try to tiptoe around me, thinking I could lose it and obliterate them at any moment, if they do something wrong. They forget that I have trusted them enough to reveal things to them so many do not know, and I have no reason to harm those I have seen the potential and shine in."

"Others?" Percy brought up, his mind still stuck on the one word near the start of Chaos' explanation. Instead of answering, Chaos gestured past the two he had come to visit.

"Sit." His word was but a lone word, sitting between an offer and a demand, and the demigod and his goddess chose to comply. They turned, and found on the other side of the pit a bench waiting for them. They gave Chaos a look of curiosity only to find him sitting in a bench of his own, mirrored to the one he offered them. They took their seat on it and looked to the high god before them.

"Let's start with my first offer," Chaos began, looking to the pair of champion and patron. "I've made this offer to many before you, for they have proven their worth and potential to be more, and now I offer it to you: the chance to come with me to a new life." Percy and Hestia's eyes widened at his proposal. "If you choose to, I will take you away from this world to live among the people who have agreed to this in the past. There your life will start anew, and you can find that which you had lost. You were a warrior and a leader, Perseus, and with me you can find that place in life again. Return to yourself the life you are most familiar with and that you had earned, which was forcefully ripped from your being and wear it again into the world. And with it, you will find life with new people, those you can trust, for if you could not they would not be with me."

Percy sat still as the words swam around in his head and his offer stood in front of him. A new life, and restart, to get back what the camps and gods took from him when he was cast out, and when he chose to leave it behind without a fight. He could get it all back, and then some. He could meet people that he could trust, people that could fill the holes his old ones had betrayed and manipulated to manipulate him. That could be his once more.

Percy dropped his hand from his lap onto the bench, brushing against the hand of the one who sat beside him, and the five past years came rushing back in his mind. And with them, his answer. "No."

Chaos blinked but it did not waver his smile. "You're turning down my generous offer?" The tone of his voice gave away what he was doing, and Percy gave him the midway point of a look between bored and angry.

"Are you mocking me?"

"No, but I am happy you caught the joke. I am fine with your answer. May I ask why you wish to turn this one down? I'm curious to know what you have to say."

Percy blinked and looked down at his still extended sword, brushing his thumb along the hilt. "It's…it sounds really nice, don't get me wrong. But I have my purpose." Percy turned his head slightly to his side, letting his eyes rest on Hestia. "Doing what I do now, helping demigods get to the camps safely and learn from them how to continue to live safely. I'm happy doing this. It's filled my heart when they tore it open. If you came to me with this offer sooner…I might have said yes then. But, with how my life is now, I can't agree to leave it behind. I wish to stay here and continue doing what I do." Hestia sent him a smile, and he did the same. "This life is a good life."

"What a splendid answer." His voice brought the two out of each other's gaze to stare back at the creator. "In case you questioned me choosing you out of all the people of this time to choose from, that should be enough reason why I have. Dedication to the family you still have. Good." Percy nodded, blushing slightly, and only did so more when the goddess hugged his side.

"Thank you for staying and saying that, Percy," she spoke softly into his ear. Percy lowered his head and raised a hand to place on hers.

"Thank you, for giving me this new life."

"I couldn't let you not smile."

Chaos placed his hands on his knees. "Shall we move on to the second offer I bring you, young Perseus?" The demigod nodded, and he and the goddess broke their hug to face their bodies to him. "Good. What I offer you now is more unique. Each trustworthy soul I come across, I offer to bless, and pass onto them powers different from the next. And I offer you powers, ones you do not have, ones that you deserve and could benefit from in this life. You won't be able to harness them right away, for they need time to store in you so you may use them to your heart's content. You will look different too, but only slightly. Not too much of you will change, and it won't be something very outlandish and overboard, like extra limbs or growth. Just your look will change, if you wish for these powers. You can use them to protect and survive, and those seem to be two of your biggest goals. What say you, Perseus?"

Percy breathed out his nose and finally capped his sword, trusting the atmosphere enough to lower his guard. His fingers scratched at his pants lightly as he muttered under his breath about the idea of more powers. His eyes trained on his hands, flexing his fingers as he counted that which he already had. Did he need more? Would it be helpful? Would it be too much? Would it absorb and corrupt him? Would they help more than harm?

"What kind of powers do you plan on giving me?" Percy started, moving his gaze up to meet Chaos'.

"An extension to your fire powers. You have little ones that Hestia herself has given you, and I would give you more offensive and defensive ones to wield alongside the passive abilities you have now."

Percy nodded in understanding, letting those words sink in before he gave his answer. "Okay. If the power is going to be that helpful and simple, I'll take them. Thank you."

"Splendid." Chaos leaned to the fire in his seat. "Come to me, if you would."

While still slightly hesitant around the new deity, Percy picked himself off the bench and shared with Hestia a small smile as he made his way over. He walked around the fire to him, and nearly jumped into it when Chaos just _appeared_ by his side, gesturing to the now empty bench. "Lay down," his voice came out over Percy's shoulder, and he complied. Now spread on the bench, Chaos walked to the demigod and stood by his side, holding a hand out and hovering it over the sea god's son. "Now close your eyes. You will not feel what I do to you, but the powers and changes will be made. They will be yours."

Percy took a deep breath and gave the starry night above one last look before his eyes closed. Chaos lowered his hand closer and curled his fingers down, and Percy's body relaxed and opened up until he fell asleep.

"L–Chaos?" Hestia spoke up from across the fire.

"Yes, Hestia?" Chaos leaned his body down closer to the boy, swapping his head in place with his hand.

"Pardon me if it sounds rude, but may I ask why you have come to Perseus now, of all times?"

"Because now is the time," Chaos answered simply. "He has gone through the hardships placed upon him by the gods and their children and has moved on to a life of lax and happiness. The first offer was but to test, and let him prove to himself that he is but a worthy man in this world. And now that he has found himself stable, I come to him offering progress. There is no fear of an enemy overhead, not any I see. Peace will continue with his life, even through the little bumps. These will make those bumps less bothersome for him. It's only fair." Chaos moved his hands to the sides of Percy's face, and Hestia watched as the stars that decorated them moved and gathered on his palms and fingertips before he stroked them through Percy's hair. Hestia watched as the dark strands that sat atop the demigod's head grew bright at the creator's touch, becoming a soft gold and orange in their place. Chaos retracted a hand from the hair, lowering it down Percy's face before resting below his chin.

"You wouldn't want it like this, would you?" Chaos spoke aloud, more to Percy than to Hestia, which confused the goddess by its meaning until she saw the man change to what was not a man. His fingers grew slender, his form thinned, his suit melted and molded itself into a dress. Chaos' hair grew out and dropped, acting as curtains around Percy's head. The now her Chaos looked down at the boy, the smile still on her lips. "Like this, no?" Her voice, too, had changed to match her form.

While the drapes of hair still stood in between their faces and Hestia's, she could still see through the cracks as Chaos opened Percy's mouth with her hand and pressed her lips to his, moving her other hand below his head to touch the hairs closing in on his neck. Hestia could not stop the confusion and the blush that made their way upon her as she watched the creator and most powerful being in existence kiss the boy she had come to visit. Of all she could have expected, that certainly was none of them. When Chaos lifted her hand and head away, the emotions in Hestia only grew as she watched the creator's glowing orange tongue slide out of Percy's mouth and back into her own.

Chaos' hands moved up Percy's face and rested their thumbs over his eyes, rubbing across the lids gently. "Arise, Perseus, my child," Chaos spoke softly to the boy. "Arise, my star." She released his head and stood upright over the body, and Hestia watched her form flicker and shift until she was a he again.

"That's a first," Percy commented, opening his blue eyes slowly to the sky.

"Oh?" Chaos quipped. "What is?" Percy pushed himself up slowly to sit and turned to face the two deities. Hestia stifled a gasp, but the action was lost on Perseus.

"I've never been called a star before," Percy admitted. "A bit weird."

"I think it fits you," Chaos told him, waving a hand between them to form a mirror for the boy. Percy blinked at his reflection and jumped back in shock, holding onto the bench to keep himself from jumping over it.

The man in the mirror almost gave him a heart attack, since it was both him yet also not him. His hair was no longer crazy and everywhere and solid in its place; it had become crazy and everywhere and flowed, flickering up like a fire, which Percy almost mistook it for. He ran a hand through his hair, finding it warm but still hair all the same, and watched as puffs of light flew from his head, like the embers of the fire pit among them all.

His eyes were startling. No longer did he have the human eyes he was born with, colored a soft sea green. They had instead become full orbs of blue shades and tints, floating around one another yet staying solid and in no way obstructing his ability to see the world around him. And as he barred his teeth, he found the white bones that they once were, replaced by glowing red stubs with streaks of orange passing through them at any given time.

"What the hell did you do to me?" Percy breathed out as he continued to give himself a look over.

"I made you my star," Chaos told him. "A red star when you speak and command, a blue star when you gaze and glare, and a yellow star when you stand up tall and menacingly. From these will come your new powers in time, and with them you may control that which builds in you now."

"You said you weren't going to change me that much. My face is the first thing people look at, so this is going to be distracting as all hell."

"Well," Chaos began as he took away the mirror, "proportionally I did not change much to you, so I am keeping up with my promise. And the mist will cover for you around the mortals. Of those who can see beyond the mist, however, they will see you the way you are now."

Percy groaned and curled down to his knees. "I'm happy Lady Hestia is the only one that stays around then."

Hestia smiled to him, slowly coming over the many stages of shock the scene moments ago had thrusted upon her shoulders. Chaos hummed and looked above the boy before him. "Yes, about that. This brings me into my third and final offer for you."

Percy shot his head up to the creator, who lowered his to meet the demigod's gaze of light. "Finally, if you would like to, since you have denied my first offer, I can have people spend time with you. I have three who have taken up on all of my offers who know of you and wish to meet you, the new you. They're fascinated by your stories and wish to meet the man of the legends, and if you would allow them, I would too. If you say yes, then they will work out with one another how they will come to greet you, and you will hear from one of them before you hear from me of their plans."

Percy stared at the eternal sky being, his hair wisping in the night wind in tandem with the fire between them and the goddess. When he broke his gaze away from Chaos it moved to said goddess who met it with her own and smiled his way. He smiled back, barring his red teeth slightly into it, and made the decision in the back of his mind.

"Sure." Percy turned his head back to Chaos while speaking. "I could use the company. I think I'd like to meet them too, and hear from them what I'm missing by staying here and living happily."

Chaos let his smile direct itself to Percy. "Wonderful. I will inform them of your decision then. You will hear from them soon. Goodnight, my star child." Percy blinked at the nickname, only to find Chaos gone and Hestia and himself to be seated in the grass across from one another where the benches were once situated.

"Huh," Percy let out from his mouth, looking over to the goddess. "Well that was something I wasn't expecting to happen."

"It was surprising," Hestia agreed, picking herself up and making her way through the fire one more to sit in front of Percy on her knees. "This is the first time I have met Chaos, and he is not the being I was expecting him to be. He was right to call the documents we have on him theoretical. They don't do that personality of his justice."

Percy hummed and looked down at his hands. "It feels weird."

"What does?"

"My face. My eyes work fine despite being balls of fire, my hair doesn't burn even though it's a flame," Percy smacked his lips together, "and my mouth tastes weird now." With his head down, Percy was unable to see the blush Hestia got remembering for him why that was. "I feel…warmer, I think? I'm not burning up, but it is a very soothing feeling."

The goddess raised her hands and ran her fingers through the pillars of locks on Percy's head. "That's good, Perseus. That it doesn't hurt you. I think you look beautiful with them."

Percy closed his eyes and smiled as the blush played out on his cheeks. "Thank you." His fingers drummed on the grass between his legs. "My lady?"

"Yes, Percy?"

"Would you like to spend tomorrow together again? I have no matter to attend to and no demigods to rush to the camps. I would enjoy spending more time with you."

Hestia smiled and leaned down to him, placing a soft kiss atop his head, in the middle of his flaming scalp. "Of course, Perseus. I would love to spend the day with you." Percy raised his head to smile up at her. "Come now, Perseus. Let's get you to a real bed for the night. Lie down and close your eyes."

"Yes, my lady." Percy leaned his body back slowly into the grass and Hestia moved to his side, keeping her hands in his hair. The son of the sea gave the night sky his goodbyes before closing his eyes and feeling his body ripped away from the outside world.

When he opened them, he found a ceiling above him, and a blanket being pulled over him. He rolled his head to the side, watching Hestia tuck him in and place the leftovers of their food to the side on a counter before sitting down on the bed beside him. Her hands combed his hair as it flickered up to the sky, refusing to let gravity hold it down. She smiled peacefully down to the demigod, and he smiled up to her, blinking his eyes in a struggle between staying awake and falling asleep. He succumbed to the opposition and allowed it to take over.

"Goodnight," Percy spoke softly, "my lady."

And there he slept, with the goddess by his side, soothing him into the night.


	5. Chapter 5

**Welcome to chapter 5 of Magic Child. Took me for-fucking-ever to write this shit. It only half went the way I expected it to. The first half was all rewritten when translated to the screen from the paper, and the second half is all free of a pencil draft. Prepping this chapter was a mess, so sorry about the late upload of it. If I can get my shit together, this week's chapter for _Red Satoshi_ should come sooner than later. Then I work on _Betrayed_ my last week of break and then my first week returning I get to write chapter four of _A New Starting Point._ Finally get to get back to that story, now that I've given it time. I'm genuinely surprised and happy as to the amount of attention it's gotten. It's not at all what I was expecting to see.**

 **First thing I want to note is pairings. None of my stories currently have them in the writing, par one, but most are planned to appear and then get worked in to the search options. Red and Yellow is the only named parring currently, but I do plan on _Warriors_ being Percy with Artemis and _Betrayed_ being Percy with Hestia, if any of you are interested in those. They'll come eventually, I promise. This story had a pairing in mind, but it seems I am making some adjustments to it. I don't know how well it will work, and how liked it will be, but I will do what I can to make it happen. And with _Starting Point_ , the pairing on that will be very vague and built up to. I think I have a solid idea on who I want to put Izu with, but I still have to come to the conclusion that there will be a pairing in the end.**

 **Last thing to mention is that I get scared writing these. I can kind of assume off my notes how long a chapter will be, give or take a few hundred words. It's somewhat easy to calculate given how I write. What scares me is the MHA story, where each following chapter has gone up by an extra 1k words, and if things go the way I'm expecting them to, the fourth installment may or may not reach 9k without the note. I'm afraid of writing that much once the holidays are over, right when I return. I may struggle with that, so if anyone is interested in it, be warned for a possibly bad update schedule that week.**

 **Passing those notes aside, here is the new chapter. Do enjoy.**

* * *

 **Saturday**

"You know," Percy began, holding up a finger, "the only problem with my new look is that no one is reacting to it."

"None of them can see it, Perseus," Hestia explained to him, turning her body around to face him in the crowd.

"Percy. But still, I'm dying to know what they think of it." Percy brought a hand to his chest and pressed his fingers to his shirt. "I _need_ to know. It's gonna bug me until it happens."

The goddess giggled at her friend, holding a hand in front of her mouth for added effect. "Chaos did say only those who see through the Mist will see your new look. Why not find some demigods to scare?"

"And get stabbed? No, no no no no no no." Percy shook his head. "Let's not get me into fights this weekend, if you don't mind. I'm trying to spend some happy and friendly times with you this weekend. I'd rather not have anything get in my way of being with you."

"Awww," Hestia cooed. She stepped closer to Perseus and wrapped her arms around him, nuzzling him and his cheek in a hug. "That's so sweet of you Perseus."

"First of all, still Percy. Secondly, PDA." Percy threw his hands up to his side, leaning slightly away as Hestia coddled him. The goddess let out a pout, slumping her body against his and moving her head to his shoulder.

"Fiiiiine."

Percy chuckled at the goddess' attitude and wrapped his arms around her, patting her back ever so slightly in the hug. "Thank you," he whispered in his ear, eyes darting up for a moment to the people passing by. "If you weren't copying my age, I would have believed you to be in your 10-year-old form."

"Eight-year-old form."

"Eight-year-old form. Got it. Wait." Percy pulled back slightly in the hug to look down at the goddess in his arms. "Is there that big of a difference between the two for you to choose being two years younger?"

"Shhh," the goddess shushed him, placing a hand on the back of his head and pulling him back into the hug. "Just go with the hug, Percy."

The demigod sighed and settled into the embrace, lowering his head to rest it softly against hers. "Thank you for saying my name correctly this time."

"Is there anything I am allowed to call you?" Hestia asked him, running her fingers gently through the back of his hair.

"As long as it isn't Perseus, sure."

"So…how about daddy?"

"Nope." Percy's arms launched off the goddess and he himself wiggled out of the hug, backing away from the Olympian. "Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope. So much nope. We are not doing that. You are not doing that. Never say that again, especially in that age form, and especially in public." Percy wagged a finger in the goddess' direction, accusing her of her actions.

Hestia lost herself to laughter, bringing a hand on top of her mouth to keep the sound in check. "I'm sorry Percy," she struggled out through her giggle fit. "I just wanted to see you react. Your reactions are always so cute."

Percy told himself the heat on his face was from his teeth and nothing more.

"Why do you do this to me?" he pleaded as his body slouched dramatically. "What have I done to deserve this?"

"You became my friend," the goddess responded, closing the gap between them once more to place her hands atop his shoulders. "I have no one else to do this with. The rest of my family wouldn't be as free and kind as you are to my teasing.~"

Percy groaned and threw his head down. "That's cruel," he muttered out. Hestia giggled and cupped a hand under his chin to raise his face to meet hers. Percy refused to believe his face and teeth matched.

"You know I care for you, Perseus," she started with a smile. "I'm sorry for teasing you. I'll stop for now, if it will make you feel better."

"I'll feel at ease," he mumbled, taking the time to straighten himself back up and work away his blush. "Thanks."

"Anytime, my hero."

"Alright, do we need ground rules?" Hestia giggled away again, as Percy stared her down for her choice of words again. "You need to tone it down on the nicknames. The first one is just uncomfortable, and the second one – it's nice, yeah – it's too possessive. You're scaring me, but not really, so please." Percy placed both hands in front of himself towards the goddess, pushing against the air between them. "You just said you'd stop teasing me for now."

"'For now' was a long time ago." Percy closed his eyes and took a deep breath to keep himself in check. Hestia reached over and patted his shoulder softly. "Sorry."

"Okay but are you though?" Percy could hear Hestia laugh at the exhaustion in his voice. He tilted his head back and looked up to the floor above, watching people pass over the bridges to the stores above them. "We're supposed to be shopping for something – anything – for the apartment. We need a frame, so let's please just go get a frame for the picture. I'll buy you whatever else you want to get for the place, okay? Just please tone it down."

Percy wavered slightly as Hestia walked against him, taking an arm in hers and standing by his side. "Alright, I'll stop," she whispered to him, resting her head against his shoulder. "Shall we go shopping, my champion?"

"See, that, I can handle." Percy lowered his head and gave a small smile through the red on and in his face. "And yes, I do believe it is time for us to go shopping."

* * *

Percy's fingers drummed anxiously along the side of his leg. He blinked and turned his attention away from the goddess in front of him to the girl across the mall, watching him as discreetly as she could. Unluckily for her, Percy had lost his pupils when he had gotten his new eyes, so once Hestia had told him of the approaching half-bloods in the mall he put himself on high alert and on watch. He had only found one of the three that the goddess could sense, but spotting the daughter of Athena wasn't that had when the young teen wasn't doing much to hide her looks. At least he found the reaction to his new looks. Not his first guess.

She didn't know any better, as far as Percy could tell. He could spot her out of the corner of her eye but she had no real way of knowing where he looked. She made no move to advance to pull back once he had spotted here, which told him enough to know they weren't a step ahead. Or at least she wasn't. Percy had yet to find the two other demigods in the area, so when they approached he would have to make sure his senses were on an all-time high.

"Do I look good in this?" Percy snapped his attention back to the goddess, who had slipped on a jacket and was checking it out in the mirror. He smiled and stepped closer, getting a better look on how it looked from the front in the mirror and how it was in the back from in front of him.

"It looks good on you," he admitted. "Looks like something Thalia would wear. Form-fitting and of slick material. All it's missing is an emo band title and boom, you'd become a nicer version of my cousin."

"Maybe, but do _I_ look good in it?" Hestia turned around to face him, hands on her hips, and body angled for effect. Percy chuckled at her acting.

"Yes, you do look good in it. Works well with your lighter shirt and darker pants, like it is part of the set."

Hestia smiled and bowed her head. "Thank you." She spun back around to the mirror to keep judging it.

"The real question is: do you need to buy more clothes? You can make your own whenever. I've seen you do it. You don't need to buy any more."

"Yes I do," the goddess huffed, looking back to him in the reflection. "You don't spend time with anyone else, and those you are with leave you in a few days' time. Remember, I'm doing this to fill that closet with things that aren't just yours so you never feel like you're alone."

"Ah, right, that. As if I could ever feel alone with you always dropping by to give me company when I'm not busy. You don't have to buy clothing to do the job you already do. Besides, how often are you going to wear this?"

The goddess turned on her heals and walked into Perseus, pressing her body to his head-on. "Buy it for me and I'll wear it for the rest of the weekend to start," she responded quickly, locking her eyes on his. Percy forced a smile through his returning blush at her sudden actions, but nodded none-the-less.

"Alright, I'll buy it if you want to wear it so bad."

"Thank you," she responded cheerily, smiling and bouncing back to take it off and get it paid for. Percy followed, working mentally to tone himself down, before his head clicked and his attention turned back to the store across. The girl was still there, or someone with her hair was, but their back was turned to him, and the rest of her body facing two others. If Percy was a betting boy (which he wasn't because he knew how serious of an addiction gambling was and the idea of it reminded him too much of his shitty stepfather from his earlier years) he guessed the two boys beside the blond were the other demigods Hestia had mentioned. One of them looked across, and for a moment the son of the sea believed their eyes to meet his, telling the boy to turn back to his friends. He said something Perseus couldn't hear, drawing the girl of the group stiff and turning her head back slowly.

That was them, Percy was sure of it. He tried his best to act as though they weren't what he was focused on, and Hestia calling him over to the register only made it easier. He made way next to the goddess, stepping forward to pay for her jacket. Instead of bagging it away for him to carry, the Olympian slipped it on and left the zipper open to let it lax on her body. She took her champion's hand and pulled him out of the store after they received their change and pulled him along through the mall of people to somewhere next.

Percy let his gaze slip to the side to see the three demigods on the move once more, grouped together and following along from the other side of the floor a bridge-walk away. His fingers curled around Hestia's, and she gave him a small squeeze to show she was paying attention too.

"I think we should leave now," he whispered over to her. "We got the frame and a new landscape to put over the bed, and we got you a nice jacket. Anything else you want to get while we're here?"

"If you want to leave now, then we can leave," she responded, keeping her head forward and smiling to keep the look of not knowing better. But she did and he knew she did and as long as the kids didn't, all was well. Percy pushed in to her, guiding her along with him through a hall jutting through the crowd of people and stores, and took her into the parking lot it connected to. "They're following."

"Then we lose them," Percy responded and he pushed through the doors to the outside. "We'll take an empty elevator and we'll go straight home." Hestia nodded, softening her smile and looking over to the demigod beside her.

"You don't want to confront them and learn of what they think of your new look?"

"I already have a guess." Percy looked back over his shoulder for a second, and spotted the demigods make way outside as the goddess and champion entered the structure. "Run to the elevator."

The two turned their bodies to the side and bolted, hands slipping from one another as Percy kept the bags in his other hand from slipping. The elevators were just around the corner from the entrance and down to the wall, and one dinged open and allowed a man to leave and make way to his own car. The two Greek figure slipped past him as he did them, and relaxed for a moment as Percy pressed the button to take them the floor down and then another to close the doors faster.

As the doors closed the goddess wrapped her arm around Percy's, filling him with a warm feeling as they prepared to leave. Through the opening of the two metal doors he could see, across the lot to the entrance of their floor, the three demigods jolting in and spotting him as he tried to leave. The son of Poseidon raised his hand, slapping three fingers over his heart and keeping his gaze on the three teens as heat surrounded him. He smiled, baring his molten teeth to the teens to elicit from them a small second of surprise before the doors closed and the scenery shifted.

The three demigods ran down the stairs after the elevator and found only an empty metal box and hot air pouring out of it, void of any previous life.

* * *

 **Sunday**

Percy tapped his fingers on the table and chucked at the sight of the goddess across from him. The goddess of home and hearth stared back at the sound he made, chewing slowly on her pancakes and lowering her fork and knife to either side of her plate.

"What is it Percy?" she questioned as she gulped down her food.

The demigod sighed out a laugh and waved a hand towards the goddess. "Nothing, nothing. It's just…funny? Nice? Cute?" Percy smiled at his closest friend. "I can't find the right word for this. Sorry."

"It is fine," she smiled back. "What's on your mind?"

"Just watching you eat," he responded, chuckling again at the blush forming on her cheeks from that comment. "Knowing that you don't have to eat, just watching you take it so slowly and delicately is…weird, but in a good way. You're treating your food in a way most other people don't."

The goddess pouted, sinking into her side of the booth and playing with the ponytail draped over her shoulder. "I don't eat weird," she muttered, staring at the three-stack in front of her.

"And I don't think that you do," Percy defended quickly. "But you're being real slow and gentle with your pancakes and eyeing them like it's a unicorn on your plate. It's very cute looking."

Hestia deepened in her pout and seat, lifting her ponytail to cover her mouth and blush. "This is revenge for yesterday, isn't it?"

"Maybe." Percy smiled widely at the goddess who glared back at him over her hair. Almost suddenly their looks changed, with Percy jolt and seething through his teeth and Hestia smirking through her ponytail.

"Ow. What was that for?" Percy grimaced. Hestia just gave him and innocent look and lowered her foot back to its original place.

"Whatever are you talking about, Percy?" she asked sweetly. He glared back at her.

"Rude."

"Then stop watching me eat," she shrugged at him, pulling herself back up in her seat.

"You didn't have to hit me to stop," he grumbled, picking up a chicken strip and ripping through it with the fire in his mouth.

"You say that like I hurt you."

"You did. Here." Percy stabbed a thumb into his chest. Hestia chuckled at his antics and cut out another piece of her stack of pancakes.

"I'm sorry, I guess," she muttered jokingly, eliciting a soft chuckle from Percy as he ate his fried bird.

"Good," he replied in a similar manner, getting the goddess to laugh softly with him. His eyes glazed over the rest of the diner, spotting over the few others eating their dinner too and finding not one looking over and watching them. Also good. Percy ripped through his chicken again as a thought struck his mind, something he had yet to address to the goddess before him.

"When do you think Chaos' three will be here?" he asked aloud to his friend after swallowing his bite. The goddess looked up to him from her food, humming her thoughts through.

"He did say they would probably contact you about when they would," she offered as a response. "Maybe we'll hear from them soon, or it may be another few days." Her hands paused her cutting of the pancakes. "I believe you are also wondering what they will be like, Percy?"

The demigod nodded, twirling his half-eaten chicken strip in his hand. "I can't even imagine what they look like or do or have? And I don't know which surprises me more; the fact that there are people who live with him or that some who live with him want to meet me."

"They know of your feats. They're probably curious to meet the man behind the legends." Percy chuckled at Hestia's thought, finishing off the food in his hand as he thought about it more.

"Well, they better not have too high of expectations," he spoke. "I hate it when people expect me to be taller." Hestia giggled slightly. "What?"

"That's a good joke, Percy."

"What joke?" Hestia cut her laughter to look across at Percy, who was looking over at her in confusion and full seriousness. "I…didn't say a joke." Hestia blinked, and he blinked in response.

Hestia couldn't help it when she fell into another fit of giggles in front of him. Percy frowned and dropped his shoulders. "See, now you're just making fun of me. This is bullying and I don't approve." Percy dropped his gaze to his food to let Hestia control herself, and let out a "huh."

Through her hand and her laughter, Hestia raised her eyes to look over at him. "W-what is it?" she struggled out.

"Speak of the devils and they will send you mail," Percy summarized, lifting a note card off his dinner. He faced the writing to him, giving it a once over before reading it again. "Seems they'll be sending someone tomorrow. Apparently they want to 'hang out' one at a time, with someone meeting me and being around for every week day, so I can spend weekend alone with you. How thoughtful, even though everything they wrote looks forced."

"What do you mean?" she asked through her smile, which she was trying to force down at his words.

"They're trying to sound cool. Like, it looks genuine, but they wrote it like a kid would speak when he's trying to act tough. It's weird to read. It's written as though they actually said it out loud and wrote that word for word. It's just weird." Percy slapped the note with his other hand. "And then it asks me to check yes or no if I am okay with them spending five days with me a week, one person at a time."

"Are you?"

"Well, yeah sure. I'll test it, and if it's awkward I'll see if they can change that. Problem is I don't have a pen I can write with normally, so." Percy dropped the note beside his plate and turned back to his food before letting out a groan. "Oh, stop putting shit in my food." Percy picked the pen out of his fried and uncapped it, using it to sign the note and then throwing it on the note. "There. That should be it. We'll be meeting the first of them tomorrow, or I will – do you want to be there to meet them?" Percy pointed his question to the giggle-fit goddess across the table.

The hearth shook her heard. "I think it would be best you know them instead. I am sure a few members of my family already know that I meet with you, thought they have said nothing to Lord Zeus about it. In case Athena worries about the presence of your new friends, to avoid any blown-out-of-proportion cases, I will distance myself from them. I will still be seeing you though. My baby brother can't stop me from keeping you alive with the amount of help you've been to the children."

"They know what I do?" Percy asked, hesitant to the topic. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"We do. At first, there were problems, voiced by several on the council, but after viewing your actions several times, we came to the agreement not to do anything to you for your actions and good deeds. They did not, however, agree to help you in any way with this new work of yours, in case you're wondering about that too. The home and money I give you was from no one but me, Perseus." Hestia twirled her hair in her hands, and for a moment Percy thought she was nervous. "We learned of what you did a few months after you first started. It took Zeus a while to figure out who was behind the what. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to worry about the gods after you entered a more peaceful life of traveling. I share this with you now because of your soon-to-be new company. The council will watch you and them, if Chaos allows it, and will judge their character and if they have to intervene."

"Does Thalia know?" Hestia fixed her gaze to meet Percy's. "What I'm doing. That you all know. Does she?" The goddess shook her head.

"The gods have not shared this information with another soul. Nico knows you live, but Hades has told us that he refuses to search for your soul and find you. He doesn't want to 'meet the bastard ever again.'" Hestia sighed into her food. "I am sorry, Percy."  
"Don't be." Percy ran a finger over a fry, his gaze struggling to stay on the goddess and not drop out of defeat. "At least now I know why I never come across the hunters and Lady Artemis. Do any of them keep up with me, kinda like you do?"

"Apollo, Artemis, and Athena keeps tabs on you. Usually when you transport demigods. They know I spend time with you but I doubt they're watching now. I think Athena decided you as no threat and has seen it best to leave our time to us. She trusts us enough to know I am in no danger."

Percy sighed and tossed the fry into his mouth. "You think they saw Chaos?"

"No. Artemis most likely would have called a council meeting, had that been the case. I do not believe I would have been with you this weekend had the creator shown up and alerted my family. He may have hid any means of sensing him when he arrived and he may do the same with his three people coming your way. If that happens, the council will begin to fret and intervene, and I do not wish to put you in any trouble."

"It's…fine, I guess. At least I know now." Percy looked back down, and took notice of the missing note and pen. "I'm guessing they do too. We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?"

Hestia nodded solemnly. "I am sorry for any trouble that may come your way."

"It's not your fault." Percy picked up a fry and threw it onto her pancakes. "So don't be sorry. Just keep eating and the rest of the night is ours. Let's hope things go smoothly."


	6. Chapter 6

**It is 2 am and I hate myself. The time has nothing to do with that; I just usually hate myself. Comes with life.**

 **Anyways, welcome back to Child of Magic. I think this was the first story I made on this site, back like too many fucking years ago for it to have gone nowhere. But it's here now, and I'm enjoying planning and writing it and the characters and their interactions and stories. This will probably be the weirdest of the bunch to write, since it's so out of place from what its kind usually is. My other Percy stories are going to have much more action in them, and usually that's what a PJO Chaos story has, but I'm doing that with this. I don't think it's a genre on here but this is much more of a character study than it is an action story. It's going to be more mellow than Starting Point, and I'm writing a teenager in high school caring for an eight-year-old girl. That should be more mellow than this, but the world of Heroics will prevent that from happening.**

 **With this chapter I am going to start explaining the backstory. Here's a good chunk of what I want to give away to start, so we all at least know why the world is the way it is in this universe. Play off the takes of 'Percy meeting Chaos,' 'Percy helping demigods to the camps,' 'Percy being banished from the camps,' and put them in a way I haven't seen before. It's not my intention to try and make this story unique. I want to make this a good story. But to make it the way I want I am establishing it as far different from its brothers and sisters of the past and present and giving Percy a different way to go about all of these things.**

 **I don't plan on making the next chapter of this just one day of the week. I'm sorry this is such a late upload already. My writing schedule is out of whack because I am out of whack and so is everything around me. I'm struggling to balance everything and not over stress about fucking up life in general. I'm sorry it's affecting my upload schedule, and I know I shouldn't because this should be one of the least important things to me, but it's writing. I'm trying to write a new chapter a week to keep me on my toes, to better my writing styles and editing skills and just be better. I can't just slack on this because it's fanfiction. It's a nice place for me to practice my ideas and get feedback from people who like my work and want to see it grow and get better. Through all my school work, gaming, art, singing (surprisingly), fitness, and friends, I want to make this a part of my life. It's important to me that I have something I do, that I love and enjoy, and that's beneficial to me. I'm going to dedicate myself to this, and I promise to sort it all out, hopefully this week so Red Satoshi can get a good chapter in before the weekend. I want to be consistent. I want to be good. I want this to be good. And I promise to try and work harder. For me and for you.**

 **Thank you to those who read this story and review and follow and favorite. The more people I know like my stories the more I'm motivated to give you something to read and enjoy. Thank you for being here, and I hope you enjoy this chapter and the many to follow.**

* * *

 **Monday**

Percy didn't know what he expected to find when a hand came knocking on his door. He never had visitors; Hestia was the only person who lived with him, to the extent that she bought the apartment and would stay some nights if she was feeling it, and only minor gods coming with concerns over their children ever visited to ask for his help. The rest of Olympus let him be, father included. He hadn't seen any of them since he left Camp Half-Blood, and his father had been unable to ever send a note to him, just small gifts to show when he was listening. Even after the explanation Hestia had given him the night before, Percy had no idea if the care of his father grew stronger or weaker since he ran away to live alone.

The only guess Percy had of the person at his door was it was one of Chaos'…soldiers/men/followers/blessed/whatever-the-Hades-they-wanted-to-be-called. The creator never gave a solid notion as to what kind of people they were, or if they were even people. Like, human people. For all Percy knew, he was about to meet extra-terrestrial life forms no one had in the past. That or monsters from the depths of the Underworld turned good. Like Bob. The idea was up in the air until he threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt he had lying around and opened the door to his visitor to get a look—.

Not knowing what to expect didn't excuse anything he saw from judgement and curiosity of any kind, and that extended to eight-foot-tall, full body suits of armor.

Percy turned his head upwards slowly, taking his gaze off the metal torso to the helmet he was only able to see because the armor was leaning forward to get a look at the demigod resident. Percy was surprised to look into the holes of the helmet and see no eyes looking down at him, and from what he could tell about how the armor physically reacted, the suit in front of him looked just as surprised to see blue and yellow fire steaming from the young man's face.

The armor lowered its arm to its side, leaning down just an inch closer to Percy. He was happy it had a voice, even if it sounded echoed and doubled over itself. "Perseus?" it asked him.

The demigod nodded as slowly as his mind felt trying to gauge what was standing in front of him. "Yeah, but I prefer Percy. You're…" he lifted a finger to the armor, holding it in front of his own chest, and wiggled it side to side "…from Chaos, right?"

"Delta," was the response he received. "You can call me Delta, if you weren't given a name beforehand."

"No, I wasn't. Your name is actually Delta? Like the Greek letter, Delta?"

"Yes, the letter."

Percy shifted his chin to the side and smacked his lips open to inhale. The armor reacted again, probably startled to see more fire building the demigod's face. "Why do I not believe that is your actual name?"

"Chaos requests that we find new ones to go by, on our own choice. He gives us a new life, a chance at redemption for most of us, and with it we need something new to go by to reinforce our new lives."

Percy spent a good hour of his weekend with Hestia looking in the mirror making faces. With his eyes turned into fiery masses of blue, it was hard for him to convey reactions to those who saw them as Chaos made them. He practiced using every other feature of his face to show his thoughts and emotions to the point that Hestia could guess and tell how he was feeling and what he was showing. He hoped the suit of armor could read the face that rested between unimpressed and annoyed. "I'm gonna go ahead and assume you were the one who wrote that letter to me last night. Sounds just like you."

"Is…" By some miracle it seemed he did catch on to Percy's expression, though the tone of his voice probably did most of the work. "Is that a problem?"

"Only if you're going out of your way to talk like that. I don't know why you think you have to, but you don't gotta. You can be more open when you speak."

"Alright." The voice didn't match the word in its acceptance, but it didn't make an attempt to argue with it. Percy smiled slightly for a brief second before he frowned.

"How did you get up here?"

"Huh?" The armor tilted its head to the side form the sudden break of a question.

"You're like eight feet tall and we're on the fifth floor. How did you get up the stairs like that?" Percy pointed to his left, to the staircase that he usually took when he went home, but Delta did not follow his gesture.

"Chaos dropped me here in an instant. Thought it would be quicker and safer than dropping me off somewhere random, especially with how I look. The mist can cover for my look at keep people seeing a human form, but it isn't a flawless power, nor one that works in an instant."

Percy stared blankly at him, and the armor stared back, fingers twitched every second as though the silence of a response from the demigod was that unnerving. After a while, Percy just hummed and backed away into his apartment. "Is there a nondestructive way for you to come inside?" he asked Delta. "A front door that's missing its framing isn't the best kind of front door."

"I have it covered." Percy backed away more as sections of Delta's armor overlapped other parts, shortening his height and allowing him to walk in without crouching or entering at an angle. Once he was inside, the suit of armor took it upon himself to the close the door, and then untangled his armor back to its original towering height.

"Neat. Kinda scary, since I don't know if there is someone in there."

"I am in the armor. Chaos has it enchanted so I cannot be seen as I wear it, for safety reasons. He asks that I keep it on while I stay, and I assure you it won't get in the way of anything I need to do."

"What about showering?"

What followed that was a moment of silence of their voice as Delta straightened upright and gazed into the wall beyond Percy's head. "I'll need my privacy for that."

"Yeah, don't worry. I'll let you have that." Percy turned on his heels and walked to his couch, setting down on the back of it to face his guest. "So where do we start? Do you want to talk about something, ask me anything, or go do something?"

Delta turned his head slightly, looking around the apartment he had entered. Percy liked the place, despite having more white than blue to its color pallet. It was well furnished, pretty open in each room despite only really housing an individual, a nice up-to-date kitchen, and a nice view of Manhattan just outside his bedroom window. It wasn't a place he thought he would ever afford given his upbringing and lifestyle, but it was an ideal start he dreamed about for when he was supposed to graduate college. He never got to enter to being with.

"I didn't expect you to be living in a place like this, I'll be honest." Delta turned his head to look in Percy's direction. "It's a nice place, don't get me wrong, but it's far from what I was imaging."

Percy frowned only slightly and crosses his arms in front of his chest. "Actually, let's starts there," he started. "You've seemed surprised by a lot since you got here. Chaos said you and two others knew of me and what I did. Why do you not know of what I do? Why are you so surprised?"

Delta took what sounded like a deep sigh, something that reassured Percy in the back of his head that the armor wasn't just metal. There was a life form standing in front of him. "Chaos does not let us freely watch over the world and what goes on. We are usually given the information we want to know, and if allowed we can watch over the world until Chaos whisks us away to do something. I have not seen what the world has been like since the fall of Gaea from you and your friends." Delta missed the wince Percy made with his face. "The past five years here on Earth have been radio silence for me and the others. When Chaos returned from meeting you face-to-face, we were told little about what you are now. All we know is that since the wars are done, you spend your time traveling the country and helping demigods to the camps on either side of the nation. I didn't know you lived outside of the camps, or that your look has changed since."

"But Chaos did this." Percy pointed to his face for reference. "When I met him. He changed my look so my face is always on fire. Why wouldn't he tell you that?"

"I assumed it was Chaos' doing when I saw it, but it seems the creator decided against sharing that with us. My apologies."

"Eh, it's fine." Percy smacked his lips and swung his feet lazily over the floor. "So Chaos didn't tell you what I've been doing, or what happened?"

"I know you transport demigods to the camps, Roman and Greek depending on their heritage. I don't know what you mean by 'what happened,' though." Percy sighed again.

"Yeah, I… for the past five years I've just been here or traveling and helping demigods that begin learning about their parentage. I have to go on foot, since I don't have a license or a car, not that I'm complaining. It's better for teaching the new demigods what their lives will be like. Sometimes we get attacked, but since I left the camps monsters don't crowd after my scent like they should. Maybe the gods have to do with that…"

"What do you mean, 'left the camps'?" Percy rolled his invisible cornea to the suit of armor.

"Oh, you don't know that either. Um, yeah, I'm not welcomed into the camps anymore, at least last I was told. I can get the demigods to the camps, but I never enter the boarders anymore. I'm pretty sure there is a bounty on my head for those who know about it and are willing to try."

"What happened?" Delta turned with a loud shuffling of metal, throwing his arms to the side and leaning in towards Perseus. "You're the Savior of Olympus. Why are you, of all people, banned from entering the camps?"

"Okay, firstly, that's a lie." Percy threw a finger up in front of his face. "I'm not the Savior of Olympus. A lot of people called me that, but it's far from the truth. That title doesn't belong to me."

"What do you mean?"

"Have you been watching us since Kronos tried rising again?" The man of pure metal became rigid at the Titan's name, but nodded in his knowledge. "It was after he was defeated that people started throwing that title around, and tried placing it on me. But I never believed it or accepted it. Someone else was more deserving of it, but no one wanted to give it to him."

"Who?" Delta's voice dropped to a deeper tone, something Percy noted but made an effort not to point out.

"Luke." Delta's arms dropped at the name, in what Percy assumed to be disbelief. "Yeah, I know. Giving the guy who served as Kronos' host and tried to topple Olympus and the gods, the title of Savoir of Olympus. It sounds crazy, but it's true. I was there when Kronos was on Olympus, and I and Grover and…Annabeth fought him. But I didn't put the final nail in the coffin. Luke was the one that sent him back to Tartarus, not me. It's because of him that we're alive."

"But Luke turned his back on the gods."

"Because he thought the gods turned their backs on their own children. Luke was just angry with the gods, and he wanted it to change, wanted a system that was more fair and kind. He just turned to the wrong help to get that done. He was never using the Titan's powers, they were just using him. Yeah, he's a bit of an idiot for siding with them, this coming from a guy whose head is full of kelp, but he wasn't a completely awful person. If he was then I would be dead. Instead, he let me live. He was _the_ hero, I was just one of the others."

Delta didn't follow up with a comment on that. He seemed to accept that response, thought from his armor's body language Percy couldn't tell how he took the demigod's opinion. And since Delta refused to talk again, Percy continued.

"As to why I don't live at the camps anymore, it's because I got into a fight that…didn't end in my favor." Percy tapped a finger on his knee and looked down to the floor. "Hestia had me tell the story of what happened, to her, over and over until I stopped having a problem saying it, until I remembered it all clearly and could tell the truth about what happened that night. Until I stopped blaming myself for it all. I can't…tell you all of it, since there is a lot that you might not know, but after Gaea fell, Annabeth and I struggled with Tartarus. The two of us didn't sleep as often or normally, so some nights I wouldn't go to bed at all and some days I wouldn't get up. It kind of threw me off, and I would act more rude or distant depending on my nightmares. Annabeth too. After about two months of throwing everyone off with how I acted, and getting into some arguments here and there with friends, Jason – you know who that is, right?" Delta nodded steadily. "Yeah, he and I got into an argument, over several things involving getting the camps together. Half-Blood and Jupiter were still on uneasy terms with one another, and we got into a fight about bringing them together. After a bit, he brought up my problems with Tartarus and thought I was unfit to be any kind of leader. He kept throwing in other insults, and I got pissed. I got angry, and I attacked him. And we fought. We never used our powers, just our swords and our fists. I was able to knock him down after a while, but then someone tried to attack me from behind, that didn't help calm me at all, so I ended up fighting him, and Jason stepped back in and I ended up fighting them both. Then powers got involved. From what I heard, we took a good chunk of the camp with us.

"I still won. I got Jason knocked into a wall and out cold, and I turned to the other guy and started beating down on him. Just…punching him when I got him on his back. I think I would have killed him had my friends not pulled me off him and worked on calming me down. I think by then all of the camp was watching, but I barely payed it any attention. All I could tell was that I was angry and I hated them both. So much. Jason was my friends, and in two months of trying to recover and not let Tartarus win I got on his bad side to the point where we no longer were friends. And Marcus hated me day one, and I could say the feeling was mutual. I never liked him and he never liked me, and him trying to stab me in the back didn't fix anything."

Percy looked back up to Delta, who had stood unmoving to the story. His eyes of fire were cold, but he felt no need to cry. He didn't want to, not after it had been so long.

"So there I was, standing over two people who hated my guts as my friends tried to calm me down and stop the fighting from continuing. But I was still alert. Listening to my surroundings in case someone else wanted to go. And I heard someone coming up behind me. I just couldn't hear their voice. So I turned and slashed and cut," Percy swung his arm horizontally, his hand grasping at the air as though he wielded a sword, "right across her stomach. Not clean in half, but deep enough to draw blood and scare us all.

"I didn't know I had cut through Annabeth until I saw her eyes."

The rattling of metal altered Percy to Delta's first reaction, and Percy met it with the driest laugh his solar teeth could pass out. "I hated it. Looking into her eyes and seeing how…how horrified she was of me, that I had just cut her through. That took away all of my anger and replaced it with fear. As she just dropped into the grass with blood pouring from her stomach. I wanted to help her, but the instant I stepped forward someone had drawn their sword and tried to attack me. I didn't fight back, I just avoided it, but the more I did the more I saw people were trying to keep me away from her so I couldn't hurt her any more than I did and end up killing her. So I backed off and I ran. Right out of the camp. Away from all of the shit I just caused."

"You left Annabeth to die?" Percy was taken aback from the hiss Delta directed to him, but he met it with a hard look.

"It was either I stay and die or leave and let them treat her like they were trying when they pushed me away. And she didn't die. Hestia told me herself that Annabeth survived, though she was basically hospitalized at camp for a good month before she was allowed to do what she wanted and could. And I wanted to go back. I wanted to go back and apologize for everything that I did. But then I heard what they had to say about me, what they had told the gods in between then and when I finally found out about it all and I knew I couldn't go back. Unless I wanted to die, I had to stay away. So I did. And I have."

Percy could see Delta's armor shake slightly as he breathed. "I don't see how that connects to you picking up demigods to take to the camps, if the campers wanted you dead so badly."

"I didn't know they wanted to kill me until after I had already started. I found a demigod the day after the incident, on the run. Alone. Being chased by a cyclops. I don't think she was even 10 yet. I stepped in immediately, saved her, and took her to camp once I explained to her what was going on. But I dropped her off at the border. I didn't take her inside, just close enough that she could get in safely and find someone to help her settle in. I couldn't go back in and face what I had done so I cowered out and left again. I kept doing that for about…two weeks, and then Hestia came to me. I told her the story of what happened, she knew what I was doing, and she offered to help me to keep doing it, after what happened at camp. She got me a place to stay, and it wasn't this; we got this place two years ago. But she helped me hide. Helped me live and help others. That's what I do now. When I'm not doing that, I'm living here, and trying to live instead of hide."

The two followed his ending in a seat of silence, staring at one another with differing looks of emotion. Delta lowered his head slightly and tapped a finger on the waist of his armor in repetition. Percy watched it, unsure if he was about to attack or if he was just processing the story. Apparently it was the latter. "So you got into a fight, hurt people, destroyed part of the camp, and ran away to help the camp grow back without being there?"

The son of Poseidon nodded. "Yeah…that about sums it up. I wish I could go back to camp. I wish I could see them again, but I can't. There are more people there who hate me than who like me. I can't risk that, but I want to make up for what I did. For the harm I caused. Annabeth doesn't love me, in case you're wondering. She apparently vocalized that when she could, while she was being treated from the stomach wound. Apparently the only apology she will accept is my death. Some agree. So I'm avoiding that. I'm avoiding them, but I'm doing what I can to apologize and do _something_ to show I'm sorry."

Delta grew stiff, and with the vocal reactions he had been giving in the few minutes passed, it unsettled Percy a good amount. But the man in his armor didn't lash, as though he agreed with the campers. He bowed his head, and spoke his side. "I am sorry you had to go through all that, Percy," he spoke, in a tone more mellow than he had been. "Had I seen it happen when it did, I may have asked Chaos to let me meet you then. Maybe Chaos would have offered you to join us if we had met you back then."

"He already offered me that." Delta snapped up, to Percy who looked at him with the smallest of smiles. "I turned it down when he gave me this look. I didn't want to stop doing what I'm doing. I don't want to run further away than I already have. I want to keep helping, like this, if not some other way to let the camp survive without me. To let my friends survive without me. Maybe back then I would have accepted. But I can't, now."

Delta rose slowly. "I see. While it is a shame you won't be coming back with me, I respect your choice. You made a heroic one." Percy nodded his appreciation and drummed his fingers along the couch.

"Can I ask you something, Delta?" The man in armor nodded. "I told you my story. And I told you how I almost killed three people; one I hated, one I once cared about, and one that once cared about me. Would Chaos have offered me the deal despite that?"

Delta turned his head away to ponder, before he tilted it down and turned back to the demigod.

"Yes. Chaos would have. I, myself, didn't live a good first life. I did…many things that I regret, that I wish I could apologize for, that I want to amend. That's why Chaos came to me. To let me do something to show I meant what I felt. To not destroy and hurt again, those around me that I cared for. I didn't want the past mistakes to define me; I wanted my present attempts to be good to do that instead. I want to save people like you do, and I want people to know that is who I am, that this is who I am. We have that in common. So I know you would have been given the offer back then. I guess the demigods you saved found you something to do before Chaos could."

Percy smiled a centimeter higher and dropped off the couch, onto his awaiting feet. "Yeah, I guess we do," he admitted. "So you're staying here until Friday?"

The shift of conversation brought Delta's head up as it did before, and the armored man responded in kind. "Yes, that is the plan."

Percy extended a hand his way, letting his smile stretch just a bit more. "Welcome to my home then, Delta. I hope you enjoy your stay."

Delta looked down at the hand, giving a moment of pause before extending his own and letting Percy grip it without returning that part of the gesture. "Thank you for having me, Percy. I'll do my best."

"We both need to, don't we?"

"Indeed."


	7. Chapter 7

**This is shorter than I would like it to be, but fear not for it isn't the only chapter this week. I have a new schedule for this summer break while I have the freedom and time on my hands, and with it a plan to make more chapters a week per story without other work in my way. I am posting this chapter after I have just finished it, and I will in the morning (and after I apply for some jobs) continue with the following chapter. In content, it's supposed to go alongside that in here, but it did not feel right to put them in one chapter. The flowing of it didn't read in a good way, so I've decided to work it separately.**

 **I do want to respond to comments and questions anyone who reads this story has, and that I'm able to answer without giving too much away. I feel somewhat bad for my lack of solid commitment to my schedule and writing and the amount of times I've rewritten most of these stories. So, if you have any to ask that are burning if any at all, do leave them as a comment. I will just respond to them sooner on my Twitter than doing them for the next chapter since I'm just cycling through them each week and won't touch this for a while so I can work on the others. That can be found under the name _Phantos God of Horrors_ (since apparently I can't just post the link?)** **, and an example of what would be done was made just last weekend with my newest story, _Pro Hero Metal Bat._**

 **Thank you to those of you who enjoy this story and have followed along with my BS and comment and everyotherfuckingthingyoudowiththisstorythatmakesmewanttocontinue and I hope to have the next chapter in by Thursday. Maybe one more on Friday too. Enjoy the newest bits.**

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What Delta had expected of Perseus upon meeting him was never met. He found himself surprised to find the life the son of Poseidon was living had turned him modern man instead of modern demigod.

Delta had expected a camp, not a two floor apartment with a view of Central Park opposite of the front door.

Delta had expected company, not a demigod living alone with women's attire in his closet and drawers.

(Apparently Hestia stayed nights and days at the apartment. Slightly worrying, but she wouldn't be coming over while he was around, nor would any of the other gods, according to Percy. Interaction and interference was going to be minimalized by the gods between them and Chaos' people. They'd just be watching from above, as Chaos and Percy both explained in their own way, with the latter less than pleased at the idea.)

Delta had expected a monster outing when he and the demigod of legend went out to the store for groceries, not a peaceful walk through the town to a CVS and a friendly conversation with one of the clerks that Percy had apparently gotten to know in his new life.

Delta had expected to be fine beside Percy with no one noticing their out-of-place features, and he at least got that.

But that was all he got.

The sleeping arrangements were less than ideal, but Delta didn't have a problem with them. He could sleep within his armor seated in the common area of the apartment. Percy didn't seem too happy at the idea of letting that be, but Delta was used to it out on the field. The two had their dinner (somewhere along the way Percy had learned how to cook on the stove and oven which made sense given he had access to them now when no one really did at camp) and called it a night there, with Delta taking a seat beside the couch towards the TV and Percy took a case of beer bottles up to his room. The son of Poseidon handed the remote for Delta to use until he decided to sleep, if he still had any interest in the art medium after being isolated from the world for so long, and left him there for the night.

Delta didn't turn the TV on. Maybe the news could give him some useful information on the current state of the world he had left behind, but it wouldn't cover the past few years if something major hadn't happened to make them all worthwhile, and he didn't see the reason to humor the news channels to get that information. Percy could better inform him, and the internet could provide even more. He'd have to check and bring them up later.

But Delta didn't go to sleep either. He sat awake in the darkness inside his armor with nothing but his thoughts for the night's company. The most that had changed about the world happened at the start of his ignorance to its events, and Percy had already given him quite the lengthy overview of that experience. It wasn't at all a story Delta would have even believed, and in truth a part of him didn't.

He didn't distrust Percy to a dime, per se, but the demigod before him acknowledged his mental struggle against the nightmare of and from Tartarus. Perseus had every right to fear that pit, but Delta wondered how much the demigod had hallucinated because of that place. How much of the fight had truly gone down. How many of his friends had actually turned on him. How many he had actually hurt. If the hate Percy presumed they held toward him was even real.

Delta had never experienced Tartarus but he knew enough about it to presume the worst and most heartbreaking of scenarios.

"FUCK OFF!"

Delta turned his head to the stairs where the sounds of smashing glass echoed from. He stood, opening the side of his armor over his legs and reached in to pull out the hilt of a sword. His grip tightened on the empty handle as his armor closed again, and the blade shot out in layers from the base. More tumbling about sounded from above and Delta made his way to the base of the stairs, ready to charge up to help in the fight.

But at the top, alone, shirtless, and looking to be in one piece unscathed, was Perseus. Looking down at Delta, the only light from his floor emanating from his hair and his eyes, and when his lips parted the teeth too. The glow from them was soft, but it was strong enough to shine light on the frown of his features, along with shining off the bottle and sword in his hands.

"Is something the matter, Perseus?" Delta questioned from below, flexing the fingers around the hilt of his blade in case the answer was a 'no.'

Or he wouldn't be getting an answer.

"Take off your armor." The jittering of his armor ceased as Delta locked his own eyes with Percy's blue orbs.

"Perseus?"

"Take it off."

Delta faltered, lowering his blade to the first step. "Perseus, what happened?"

"I don't trust you." That blade came rising again as the glare in his fiery eyes became clear. "Take it off."

Delta lifted the blade higher, turning his body slightly as Percy took a foot down one step. "What brought this on?"

"I think I'm being too lenient with the new people I'm coming across, and that includes you. I don't know who you are and I have no reason to let you into my home. Now take off your armor."

"You know I can't do that, Perseus." Said demigod growled, the light of his features diming as he took another step down, bending his arm and raising Riptide in front of himself.

"And I told you to call me Percy. But that wouldn't change much, now, would it?"

Delta shook the head of his armor slowly. "Don't do this, Percy."

"Don't make me."

 _Take it off._

Delta hunched himself back and let his head raise away from the demigod despite the situation. " _Chaos_?" Perseus made no move in response to the other voice, so Delta could at least assume it was only for him.

 _It's alright. You have my permission now. It seems there are other plays at work we'll have to work with._

Delta lowered his gaze to the man of fire and water standing steps above him. " _What do you mean?_ "

 _You'll have to trust me. It is not in my place to explain. Not yet._

"Are you deciding?" Percy let his voice fly again, rolling his shoulders slowly and clutching both items in his hands and taking another two steps closer.

Delta tensed at the approach. " _Are you certain about that?_ "

 _Percy's approval and kind heart will be more necessary to obtain than I initially realized._

Delta allowed the sword to drop in his grip as the rest of his body loosened too. " _Only if you are indeed certain._ I have decided, Perseus." The demigod kept his body stiff and straight high up the stairwell as Delta kept his eyes to Percy's. "I will comply." Nothing of Percy changed upon hearing the words, but he made no more advances following.

From the chest the armor opened, starting from the top link of the metal around the neck and following down opening one at a time. By the time the wave of opening down the center reached the waist, it stopped, and down the center of each leg it continued again. The helmet and gauntlets themselves stayed unmoved from their positions, but as the figure within became visible Percy could see why.

Soon the back half of the towering figure of the armor was all left standing aside from what would have covered the head and arms of the man within. Delta lifted a foot forward, setting it on the step above where his armor stayed still and pulled the rest of his body with it to stand on that step. His arms, crossed over his chest with his shoulders pushed high, dropped slowly. His shoulders eased as the arms hung by his sides.

Percy blinked down at him. "So this is you?"

Delta kept his head down, looking at the dark blue spandex suit covering most of his body, save his feet wearing small shoes that didn't cover his ankles and the bare hands hanging by his hips showing his caramel skin. "More or less," Delta spoke softly. "Simple clothing is preferred in the armor, how it folds in on itself and all." Delta turned his head over his shoulder, facing his armor as the rings remade themselves and reconnected at the front.

"It's taller than you are." Delta furrowed the white hairs that made his eyebrows, turning up to show his brown eyes to the blue fire of Percy's.

"Safety precaution. Most weapons we come across are that of a firing type, usually don't pierce the armor. Blades can make it through the small openings, and making the enemy believe they've hit a vital point helps in drawing them in with false hope."

"There's…a lot I'd have to ask to get that." The glow from Perseus died, his hair still flowing atop his head and the stars in his eyes still turning. Delta didn't think turning off the light of a fire was possible until then.

"Is…" Even with the lights out, Delta could still see the features plaguing Percy's face. "Is something the matter, Percy?"

"…" The frown that stayed upon the son of Poseidon's face throughout that conversation suddenly straightened, becoming a thin line across his lips. He looked down to the bottle in his hand, rising it closer to his face before turning his sword over his arm and cutting off the top of the bottle. Ignoring the glass and cap that bounced down the steps between him and Delta, Perseus lifted the bottle to his lips and tilted his head back, allowing the alcohol within to pour down his throat in one go.

When it was gone, head and bottle lowered in an arc, and Percy let out a hard cough with his exhale. His head stayed tilted down, eyes gazing towards the steps leading to the soldier of Chaos without meeting his eyes before he turned on heel and walked back up the stairs and back into the darkness of the upstairs. "Night, Delta."

"Cage," Delta called after him, but Percy ignored him, if the slamming of his door was anything to go by. "…It's Cage."

"This does happen."

Instantly the sword went flying out the hand of his armor and into Delta's own hands, as he turned on his own heels to the common room and the woman sitting on the couch watching him. She was simply dressed, jeans and a jacket and her hair fancied in a ponytail, unbraided compared to his own. To her lighter skin was a soft glow that kept the room soft where Percy's facial features had given up. "I am not here to harm you, soldier of Chaos."

Delta kept his gaze hard on her, looking her over and over to find some way of recognition, but his eyes could do nothing to remember her from what he knew of the gods and monsters he had studied.

The woman looked down at herself with a small, sad smile. "Perseus did not explain the changes I have made to my appearance when in his company, has he? I do believe that is fair; I did tell him I would keep my distance this week."

His form faltered for a second, arms dropping from the readied position in front of his chest, and his hardened gaze of confusion softening. The woman stood slowly, turning with equal speed and taking slow steps to the soldier steps higher than her. The armor though empty straightened itself, stepping away from the bottom of the staircase and into the line of the glowing woman.

Her smile dropped with her glow, eyes turning up to the soldier in charge of the armor. "I would think it best not to fight me, soldier. My brothers would not be pleased at a violent approach, and I know my champion upstairs would come down at a beckoning call. Given the tense face-off he had just given you, a physical confrontation would do nothing to keep us on good terms."

Delta took a moment to think of her words, picking out a few identifiers before lowering the sword completely, and himself to one knee. His armor followed. "Lady Hestia. My apologies; I had no recognized you."

"Yes, my look has changed much from what my siblings were familiar with. If you truly have been away from watching over this world grow, I assume it would be surprising to you too." The goddess had passed the armor as she spoke making way up the steps to one below Delta. The soldier edged his eyelids closer, standing again slowly and turning his body to face the goddess.

"You've heard?"

"We've been watching since you arrived. My brother and others on Olympus are intrigued and worried by your presence and your master's interest in Perseus."

"The gods…watch him?"

"Always have." Delta blinked. "My brother, bless his heart, is easily paranoid. He's been worried of the power and episodes Perseus has experienced over the years. That," the goddess nodded in the direction of the ascending staircase, "was one just now.

"It is not in my place to explain the full details," she continued, stepping past the man visiting and turning him to follow her with his eyes. "That is for Perseus to do. You can ask him in the morning." She paused, two steps above him before turning back around to look at him and raising a hand to hover beside his cheek. Delta kept himself frozen, keeping it best to not approach the goddess in a way that would offend the king of the gods and the rest of the Olympian family if earning their trust was to happen.

"I see why Percy was so hesitant." Hestia's voice turned soft, matching the frown and glow. Delta blinked in question as her hand lowered back beside her. "You remind him of Beckendorf."

Hestia waited for no response, leaving the soldier alone and wide-eyed on the stairs to continue her trek upwards, following gently and quietly into the room Perseus had slammed himself into.

* * *

Chaos sat alone atop a building, taking his male human form and dangling his feet over the edge. No one could see him, and therefore no one could fear for him losing the life he was only accessing but did not truly have. His hands cupped together between his knees, squeezing in on one another and generating small bursts of light from each moment of pressure inwards.

His head turned slightly, the night of his cheeks blending in nigh perfectly with the sky of the horizon. "You're a new face."

Behind him, steps away at the door that lead to the roof for the real people reach stood a man of blood red, business attire and fire. The man molten features floated about in a layout that mimicked a man to match the creators. "I have a lot to wear." He stepped forward in a paced speed, leaving patched of burns and smoke where he had rested his foot before. "I was not expecting someone like yourself to take notice of my presence. I'm humbled."

"Would that be your name?"

The molten man stopped paces behind the creator and moved his stone lips into a curve of a smile. "No it would not. Nor is it any of my siblings. It's too broad a state."

"Then what is your name? I usually remember my creations, but you are not one of them." The creator turned his body more, leaving the black holes of his eyes to bore down on the other being.

"I was never given a name. Just a domain. And you are right; I am not one of yours."

"May I ask you where you are from?"

"Nowhere near but right where the problem is coming from."

Chaos rose into the air, turning about his form and landing on his feet to face the other. "So those creatures are yours?"

"In essence. Or in technicality, as the boy puts it." The molten man strode forward, joining by side the god of creation. "All I do is contain them. I have no control over their actions and choices. They made those long ago."

"And they broke free?" The ruler of all did not turn his body to look back to the horizon, but his voice and posture never faulted.

"Times when I must leave my chambers can come at a cost, especially when my…guards go hunting. "It is the fault of a third party that they escape, and rounding them up in your world isn't an easy feat when I do not have the power to do so."

"But I do not have that power either." Chaos rose his head, facing the stars above that danced in harmony with those etched in his face. "I can sense them running about but I cannot control or remove them myself. This is not something I have come across before."

"The troubles of traveling where we don't belong, I guess." The fiery man shrugged with his words. "I have ordered for others to come along and clean up this mess. If we are lucky then this disease of mine put in your world will be gone without a scratch."

"And if you are not?" He turned to the creator, still staring into the space above. "If luck does not favor your endeavor?"

"Have your creations pray that she does," the man responded. "The one behind this has already failed an attempt to pay a visit. He is not taking his second attempt without caution."

Chaos made no response, and the man of red made no continuation. The two stood in silence of one another, frozen beside one another, before the molten man turned and made way back to the door following their brief conversation.

"And your talk with Perseus?" The man's hand had not reached the handle of the door before Chaos spoke again, and the red man turned to face the creator still gazing at the stars above.

"A fallback plan, if need be." His hand made contact, singeing the steel handle as he swung the door open. "And he remembers her. Misses her. Wonders if she does him." He said no more after that, and did no more after that, taking leave into the building and leaving the steaming door to shut behind him.

Chaos did not lower his chin, holding his head back to face the sky he had shaped above and painted the human form he took. And he smiled.

"Did you hear that, my daughter? He misses you too."


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay so it isn't Thursday but this took me some time to work with and get right and where I wanted it to be. Got the first portion of it done yesterday where I had the time and did the rest this morning. This is what I spend my time doing at 3 a.m.**

 **The writing here I tried to stylize a bit more for the setting and events, where things feel jumbled and distant. Shame I can only align left and center. Original had the center pieces aligned to the right hand side. I'll settle for this though. No big deal.**

 **I'm going to try writing another piece, a small one to put with this story before tomorrow comes,(A.N.: and I completely took a curve in that chapter and it will most likely be longer than this chapter, making it late. My apologies) if I can set it up and visualize it right. It won't be much, just one last perspective on this day. I know I could compile them together in one chapter since it's all happening around each other, but that didn't feel right with the perspectives I chose to take, so I cut it like this. This chapter especially could have what I upload next on here in the middle but I felt as though the shift wouldn't have been beneficial to the perspective we have, so I'll make it later.**

 **Thank you for enjoying this story. Sorry if the title is a bit misleading to think Magic with something brighter and cheery and then I write this. Hopefully my next chapters on this story after the next will clear things up a bit. Do enjoy. It's nice to see more people come in wanting to see it continue. Makes me feel my investment is worth it.**

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 _( **Important note: Putting in an edit a bit late:** This first half of the story is a bit into details of gore. Maybe it doesn't bother you. Maybe the allusion of some details is enough to get you to fill in the blanks. Maybe you hate that imagery altogether, and I assure you I sympathize. I myself am not a fan of details of blood and wounds, to put mildly. I'm currently writing the next chapter for this story, and it briefly goes over some of what's in this first half with very little detail as to what's going on. If you would rather read that, you can skip this stuff up to the next parenthesis italics and you won't miss much story. I really only wrote it this way to better illustrate what the problem is Percy mentioned of Tartarus in his story to Delta. I didn't want to skip it because I didn't think I could sell it as a problem and fear if I didn't, pardon my American, full-ass it. The whole other half of this chapter is just Percy with morning sickness if that even interests you. The other line through the page marks where that starts. Thank you to the two who have commented since I posted this chapter already. A lot of this first half is new for me to write and was a test to see how I can go about wording and expressing these things and what I would have to and should fix if/when I tackle it in a later chapter(s). Thank you for the comments to let me know this could have gone better. I'll keep that in mind as I move forward. Enjoy or skip depending on how you stomach this kind of stuff, and I'll hopefully have the next chapter in before the day ends.)_

Percy didn't like owning things. Or at the very least not an abundance of things. Anything he kept was simple since he moved into the apartment. Aside from comfortable rearrangements made to his bed and the seats thanks to Hestia taking liberties unannounced, Percy bought little to furnish the place he would stay in. He was no longer on the run, but moving about with other demigods he had to direct while staying in the wild was more common than relaxation.

His bedroom was a clear example of that. Nothing on the walls other than what was given by the owner of the complex. A mini fridge beside the bed. Some single sofas set beside the window overlooking the street leading up to his place. The most he added was an electronic keyboard on the desk. Hestia bought it for him (not made, bought, and she specified her efforts to get him something of worth) since he had been wanting something to do in his pass times that wasn't training or hunting for more demigods to introduce to the camps, and he focused briefly on learning some music, and an instrument to play, which obviously enough turned out to be the piano. Only problem was he didn't play much on it, nor could he find many sheets of music and songs to play on the piano he had a dying urge or interest to learn and memorize. So it sat alone most of his days sitting around the house with no idea of what to do in between the lack of Hestia's company.

But it was where he spent his time, since the common area was too spacious for just one man, so he wished his new company of a man stuck in his iron armor a good night and hid away in his room with a click of his lock. A b-line was made for the mini fridge, pushing aside the small containers of fruits and sweets for him to store his beer bottles. The mini fridge was a nice installment of his room, mainly where he kept cut fruits for breakfast, sweets for late night deserts, and any drink he intently needed, and that included the beer.

Percy collapsed in the chair of his desk with a squeak emanating from the back. He merely hummed at the sound, sitting loose in front of his keyboard staring down the keys. His hands sat below, resting on his knees making no attempt to play the notes resting on the stand atop the keyboard. His eyes never rose once to read it. He just sat, still, frozen, listening to the soft ringing in his ears and the small creaking of his chair.

His lips smacked apart, and his tongue played off the roof of his mouth, reciting a tune he was listening too when he and Delta had walked through the store. The lower half of his jaw jutted forward and back, changing the sound the clicking of his tongue made. Until he stopped abruptly in the song, freezing up again for a brief moment before leaning forward in his chair. One of his hands rose above the desk, hovering over the keyboard and tapping down on a white key. No sound came out from it other than the solid clicking of it moving down. It sounded nothing like anything other than nothing. The hand journeyed across the keyboard, pressing down on a blue button before returning to the same key and pressing down on it again. A soft ding came from the instrument, and the hand worked again to turn the dial of volume down to soften what he would make before hitting that key again.

His tongue clicked again, replaying the same sound as his finger moved up and down the keyboard in between each click. Click, press, no. Click, press, no. Click, press, no. Click, press, n-…that's it. Percy repeated the click with his tongue, pressing down on the key in sync and nodded after several times. He repeated the sound with his tongue, adding to it a change in the sound every other time; the second key. His finger worked with his mouth, jumping from the first key to another one further down the board, but not coming across the right key. Click-press, click-press, no. Click-press, click-press, no. Click-press, click- **Percy** —

His hand shot back, jutting with the rest of his body against his chair and leaning back into it. His right hand loosened, the index finger staying dominant and out the most, with his gaze fixated to the keyboard before him. His mouth had snapped shut and he suppressed the urge to open it again.

Percy kept still in his seat without so much as a sound of his breath reaching his ears, the soft ring from before rising steadily behind him. His lips parted as the ringing turned screeching, and the air he tried to breathe in was too hot for his throat. His body twitched, and the ring-screeching faltered, and the split second it was gone he was deaf and he shot up out of his chair and then it was back with a passion. His body curled forward and his hands fells onto the keyboard, pressing down hard onto the keys.

 **PERCYPERcypercyPERcypercypERCYpeRCYPerCYPERYPercyperCYPercypeRCYPERCY**

The volume in his ears jumped him forward, his hand darting to the corner and all but smashing down on the power button. The ringing stopped, the sound stopped, and he with it stopped, hunched over the device and panting at the loss of air. He pushed himself up with weak arms and found himself falling back on weak legs and landing on the edge of his bed. His body was jittery, hot, heavy and uncomfortable to wear. His eyes burned, but they were literal fire and they weren't melting his face before and now he couldn't tell if they were starting to do so. His hands clutched knuckle white to the sheets of his bed. He just wanted a stop.

So he closed his eyes. He tried steadying his breathing. He tried straightening his back. He tried easing his muscles. He tried turning his mind away and away and away and away until he could focus on Hestia. His mother. Paul. Manhattan. His apartment. His room. Him. Him. Him. Him.

His breathing pattern changed, his jaw pressing shut to inhale through the nose instead, and cough out weakly in an exhale. His eyes stayed shut, even as his head leaned down. He kept his back as straight as he could with his neck ruining the line, but he could feel the heat ease. The fire cool. The tension release. Air was returning to his lungs. He could feel again, and was he felt was calm and smooth and fine. His eyes opened, heat no longer bothering his face and melting him away—

 **Annabeth sat on the floor, between his legs, resting against the edge of the bed, Riptide plunged in her stomach among several shorter blades prodding from her just so it could stand out so clearly. Her head tilted back, not because she was trying to, but because the skin where her upper lip and lower lip was cut through to the furthest back part of her jawbone so the upper portion of her head could fold back and look at him with grey eyes unchanged and show to him the flesh and bone and teeth and tongue and cartilage within her mouth bubbling and pouring out from every edge of her chin—**

Percy's head shot up and the world froze again. His tongue of red flames dried up and his cheeks shuffled uncomfortably. Slowly his hands, released the sheets below him and easing through the air over his legs to hover in his lap. They dropped down slowly until making contact, and his breath hitched as the touched down on the bedding. His fingers dragged without coordination between his knees and his eyes stung like fire wouldn't and his chest expanded in attempt to save himself. Suddenly he missed the burning in his throat.

He could fix that.

With a struggle he could pick himself up and drop to his knees without collapsing in front of his mini fridge. The door of it swung open, knocking him in the knee and with a seething of his teeth he took out of it a bottle and two, placing the other atop it in wait, and from that atop he took the opener he had for that kind of night. The topless top of the bottle met his lips as the cap dropped to the carpeted floor and his held flew back to accept the burning cold fluid. His body coughed in retaliation as it was pouring, forcing his head back straight and throwing him in a coughing fit with alcohol dripping around the arm over his mouth.

It burnt and that was a good sign.

Percy blinked around the foggy sight he had gathered, from tears and pain and heat and alcohol mixing and mingling better than he did at a young age. He coughed out what drops were left that didn't turn into steam atop his red star choppers as he fumbled back to stand. The bottle still had some left to go, so he kept it held against his chest as he baby stepped it to the window. His body could barely support itself, so he found himself coming in contact with the wall sooner than _whoa_. His arms pressed against himself, shivering slightly as the heat and hotness he felt fluxed about his body unnaturally. He sniffled, using his clean arm to brush against his nose and the edge of his eyes were it was wet and that was unwelcomed.

His eyes fell onto the city stories below, the small stars of headlights dragging along at a pace with those still awake and about, shining off other people out and about and walking along the buildings together and alone. Peaceful. It was peaceful. Percy like peaceful. He liked serene and calm and pretty. He liked the real world, away from the past. He liked his room where he could hide away to rest. He liked his bed, void of any other life aside from—

 **Thalia lied atop his bed, her front facing down to his covers and her arms and legs pretzeled and bent and twisted apart and together on her back in her favorite colors of black and silver and red, hands sticking out and fingertips resting on the cheeks of her face twisted to face the ceiling and tilted to face him. Her mouth was left open, teeth plucked between every other, her black mascara smeared up-down her forehead, arrow heads taking up the space where her eyes and lids had been—**

Percy turned back to the window and to the wall and pressed himself against it. It broke, he broke, tear ducts broke breath broke, body broke, broke, broke, broke. The only sound out his lips was a gasp for air and an exhale for a cry. _It's not real it's not not at all she's fine she's alive she's not dead none of them are dead stop stop stop stop please stop please._ His knees knocked together and he fell, down, straight down, clutching his shirt and his heart and his bottle and his mind to keep anything from slipping.

"How strange. After everything the pit has showed you, your fears have stayed."

Percy chocked a bubble in his throat while his head dragged down the wall till chin met chest. His fingers flexed against the bottle as he stuttered to turn.

" _And here I thought you were a man of action. Slumping against the wall isn't what I expected of a soldier._ "

Percy looked back behind him, across the room, around his room, and nothing. No one. No body or person or device or speaker. Just the voice.

His legs dragged across the carpet and a hand fell to keep himself propped up from falling and he burned. The bottle stayed in his grip, even as it got in the way as he struggled to peel his shirt off just to breathe. The cloth found home under his palm, a place for him to put pressure as he tried to stand again, looking to his bed empty and cold and alone just to turn back to the window—

 **To see Jason dropped in, hanging by threads and hooks and needles like a puppet of the gods and watching him bounce and from the whiplash of his drop watch the hooks peel up his skin and shirt and hairs and head just so his two eyes of blue and tears and blood could meet Percy's of blue and tears and fire—**

The demigod jumped back, toppling onto his bed and dropping the bottle beside him, spilling most left into the sheets. His arms circled in on him, fingers and nails gripping at his shoulders and his eyes shut in force and pain and his mouth contorted every which way to cry and scream and plead and yell all to make no sound at all. His blood was building and his throat felt clogged and he wanted to throw up and bite down on his own skin and—

" _ **I must say I'm surprised, even if my sister takes offense to stealing her name.**_ "

Percy's eyes snapped open again turning down his face to look to the glass of his window, seeing the nightline and himself and…

 **Him.**

 _( **Important note is back:** done with trying to detail gore and fear, what's left is dialogue and a struggle to talk between two characters. Dialogue has only small allusions to bigger pictures, but it shouldn't be enough to trigger a details visualization if you keep reading. Thank you for your time.)_

His head curved slowly from his chest, dragging along the sheets and looking to the other side of his bed and finding there not him. He wore red. He was red. His suit was red, his shirt under a darker red and his tie between an even darker. His face was red and fire and magma, his cheeks and lips burning stone and his eyes…his eyes were blue. Soft blue. Dark blue. His blue.

" _ **I had known your state was questionable,**_ " the red man spoke to him, lips of molten rock flapping like lips. It was hard to hear. " _ **I had no idea you could break down so easily.**_ "

"Hhh-hhhhhhhhh-hh—wh-wh…"

" _ **Ah.**_ " The red stepped closer to Percy and from the molten he could feel the heat and the demigod could only try to wither away. " _ **Still struggling I see.**_ "

"Y-yyyy—yyo—yyyy-yyyouuurrr…rrrrnnn—rrrnnooo—"

" _ **I'm not him.**_ " The lava shook his head. " _ **You've met Tartarus. I'm not him. I have no relation.**_ "

Percy released his skin and latched his fingers onto the sheets, turning his body and pushing himself away and up by the second. "Wwwwhoooo—whooorrr—y-y-y-yyyyo…"

" _ **Phobos' greater**_ ," the man told the arched demigod. " _ **He's…less efficient at my job. I can do so much more, but if you're looking for a name, I never got one.**_ " The blue eyes dropped from the young man, eyeing the bottle lying alone. " _ **All I do is breathe fear, and so I am.**_ "

 _SHNK_.

The red rose his head again, finding Percy standing and struggling to hold his sword by his side, wavering atop and above the bed sheets when he could and couldn't lift it.

"G-g-g-g-gggeeetttt….ooa—oooaaa—oouuuu…"

" _ **You've been plagued with distrust and issues of the sort for years, haven't you, Perseus?**_ " The man kept himself still when facing the other in the room, his voice so monotone. " _ **It's ruined the company you've bounced to and from growing up.**_ "

Percy growled, dragging his other hand along the bed and pulling off it the bottle he had left behind, dragging it back too. "F-ffff—fffuuuuucc—o-o-o-ooooooooooffffffffff…."

" _ **That's why you continuously lashed out after Gaea had gone back into her slumber, isn't it?**_ "

"Ffff-ffffffuuuuu—"

" _ **That's why you went to bludgeon in Jason's head with his own shield and slit Maximus' throat with his precious knife, isn't it?**_ "

"O-o-ooooooffffffffffff…"

" _ **That's why you decorated your glorious blade with the guts of the girl who forgot how to love you, isn't it?**_ "

"Fffffuuccccck…gggggcccckoofffffffffff!"

" _ **That's why you slit your mother's throat, isn't it?**_ "

Blue burst out his eyes, arm reeling back and shooting forward for the bottle to fly. "FUCK OFF!" The bottle hit the wall, smashing upon contact and sending glass and words and alcohol about the impact. But no red nor man where it hit.

" _ **You lost the trust in the people around you and it got you here."**_ Heat and fire breathed down the back of his neck, blowing into his ear and pumping his body like an engine. _ **"And yet at the flick of a switch put your trust and your story into a piece of metal walking around claiming to be a man. A man who refuses to show his face to you and has given you a name not worth your trust. And you trust that?**_ " The heat brushed across his neck and hovered over the other shoulder. " _ **I am not your enemy Perseus, but first you should sort out who truly are your friends.**_ "

And the heat was gone. And he was alone in his room, hot, heaving, shaking, and burning. His sight flickered up, catching a look at the door of his room, and fire in his froze and raged altogether. He stomped around his bed, hand free again taking hold of the bottle atop his fridge and swinging his door open to meet with his guest.

* * *

The first thing Percy saw was the ceiling.

His body was outspread on his bed. His head could turn just enough to see his arms and legs out like a starfish with his position. He blinked to his hand, curling his toes and fingers to check his feeling sense. Cold was his skin, barely warm at all was his head.

Oh, his shirt was gone.

Percy's face turned softer, frowning as it turned up to the ceiling lit softly from light to his left. Some bluish or white light.

It's…morning.

Yeah. Morning.

His head stayed still as his eyes rolled to the side, to the window, to the sunrise in the distance. Bit well into the morning, sun inching over the further houses and buildings down the street.

Morning.

So soon?

Percy looked away, not to anywhere really, trying to think of the night. He was…he was…in his room, he knew that much with the purple bedsheets below him. Oh, had he not spent the night under the covers?

Huh.

Percy looked back up to the ceiling above and using his shoulders and elbows pushed himself up to sit up but he must has pushed up to fast because now everything was spinning(?) and his body felt really light all of a sudden(huh) and his stomach was crawling up his throat and _aw fuck_.

The young man near toppled out his bed and collided with the floor, and the only part of him that did come crashing down dripped out his mouth but he wasn't losing it yet. He moved fast, just not too fast to ruin himself and stumbled out his door and into the one beside, leading him into the bathroom and past the sink and to the toilet where he could wretch out his insides.

His vision was foggy but his cheeks never watered as his throat released. His hands clutched loosely to the porcelain keeping his head hovering above the sickness, one hand shaking as it rose to flush the stench and color away just so more could take its place.

And there he stayed, just moving his body, not letting his mind think and wander and instead had it focus and remind on what he was doing in the now. His hand slapped the sink counter beside him, dragging across and slipping down two a handle to draws down as it fell. The drawer shot open, the sound of metal and wood hitting wood and metal and the clacking of its contents rattling in his ear but really felt like it was banging in his head.

His hand struggled to stay up and on the handle, even trying to raise so it could dive inside, but his mouth was a distraction telling him to _hurgk_ and he could only follow its orders. The hand fell, slapping against the tile floor and dragging itself back with weak effort by his side and resting against his leg. Percy just coughed again, flushed again, kept his eyes closed, shivered at the cold air brushing his spine and skin and hair and he couldn't help but remember that his face was now part fire and wondered if his vomit was even effected by the red teeth—

A knock or four came from the door. "Perseus?" Said demigod turned his head slightly to it, finding it only slightly open for a voice to pass through unmuted. "Are you alright?"

Someone was in his home—someone got in his home—they broke in—came in—he invited them…

Oh. Right.

Delta.

"…mmsick," Percy spat through his lips, sending with it more illness into the bowl he curled against.

"Right. Dumb question. Can…Is there anything I can get you?"

"Imm…" Percy blinked at his hazy vision to get it to part. No success. "Wa-water…"

"I can get that," was the soldier's hasty reply. "Anything else?"

"N-no—" Percy coughed with violence and spat and drooled out more of his stomach. His hand reached over, pulling some of the paper squares apart to wipe his lips. He spat another small bit before flushing. "Jus…just water…"

"Alright." Hesitation. "I'll be right back." Steps. Away. Soft noises.

Percy turned his attention down and across, to the open drawer beside him and blinked.

When was that opened?

Percy went at a snail's pace, dropping a hand inside and pulling out a small box of what he needed. It opened easily, though he was rough with it, and the pack inside was much harder and annoying and wouldn't open.

Another knock and another. "Water's here," came Delta's voice again. "Can…I come in?"

Percy nodded, fingers fumbling to _fucking open the packet_. "C-come in…"

The door creaked open but Percy didn't look up to his guest because the packet still wouldn't open _god dammit_. A cup of water was set down by his knees, and with ease and care his hands were forced to let go of the pack as another pair of hands took it away. He wanted to raise his head, but the less than stellar health of his throat bothered him again and turned his attention back to the toilet.

When Percy could throw up no more, he turned back to the door to find the room empty with only himself and a cup of water and dissolving pills. Gingerly he picked it up, watching the water tear his medicine apart until it was there no more and water remained. He could have sped that up. His father was god of the seas and bodies of water and he'd learn how to control pure water before but his stomach advised otherwise.

He eased the drink down his throat, flowing it down his throat sip by sip, and every few times spitting out into the bowl beside when it caught the disgusting taste of his stomach with it. And there he stayed, drinking his water slowly, back pulling him away from the bowl and leaning him against the shower door to straighten his neck and let his throat ease. One hand kept cupped on his drink and the other rested beside him on the tile floor.

His body shivered again, and a crinkle caught his ears. He paused, letting his head drop by the seconds, and finding paper taped to his stomach. _Huh._ The free hand took to the air and peeled it off his skin, fumbling it around his fingers until the ink he saw on it was eligible and in a position to read.

Hestia…

Percy breathed through his nose, dropping the tense of his body, his hold his shoulders, and the note into his lap. His mouth was watering again, but his eyes never felt like they could anymore. He didn't get that. It felt weird for his eyes to burn when his teeth felt so cold and fire made his features.

He was warm last night. He could remember that.

He couldn't feel it.

He wanted to.

Again.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey, remember when I said I was gonna make a shorter chapter next? Yeah, I don't either. Let's not talk about that.**

 **This is going to be the last one of the week, and I'll be moving on to the next story and throwing in some updates there. I'm trying out a whole new layout to my writing and uploading schedule now that it's my summer break, and I'm only my second week in, so maybe one or two more and I'll have it down until I start having two jobs. I'll go fuck myself then or something. I dunno.**

 **This chapter is also softer than the last one, and has a lot more dialogue and a trustworthy perspective than the last one. Sorry about that one too. The subjects of it was really a test run for myself to try and write that stuff, since I'm not too familiar with writing it down to being with. I can visualize it so I know what I want to get across, but the emotion and speed and hectic-ness of it all is something I want to be able to word. This one is a lot more standard, just several paragraphs of explanation and set up and a lot of dialogue bouncing off of characters. I hadn't even planned to write the whole middle section of this to being with but then I got addicted to writing the first page of it so I kept on keeping on. My b.**

 **Thank you to those of you who have found this story, got interested, and decided to join in on the ride. Welcome to a shit show. Fee is free. Concessions are not provided. Seating is open floor. Feel free to write hate or love or interest or critiques in the comments/reviewing tab. This whole site is where I come to practice and better my writing , and giving me more eyes to judge it is all the more helpful.**

 **Enjoy some gods.**

* * *

Hestia wished to be around Perseus more. She wished to take him home, to his father and family that knew he was still alive. She wished to comfort him and remove from his mind the torment and lies Tartarus cursed him with. Perseus didn't deserve the pain and hallucinations and nightmares and loss that had come from his tormentor.

Tartarus was a pit, but it was also a god. A Primordial. One of the first to ever exist. A deity born as a chamber to contain other deities, as though Chaos had planned out how life of the gods would turn as the world did too. Containing other primal gods, their children the titans and giants, their children of monsters and gods, and their children of monsters and men. No one knew they were to come, that generations after the primal gods a human would be made by their grandchildren, or that they would ever have children of their own, much less the grandchildren known as gods. And yet Tartarus was bestowed a body to contain all darkness, and the power to control it.

Generations had gone through the pit, and the primal god lacked pity and heart for them and bestowed upon them curses to ruin their lives in and out of the depth of his form. The Fields of Punishment learned many a tortures from the victims, and the pit learned back what the Fields came up with in its creativity. A second underworld was created, not for the dead but for the banished. And it took its liberties is destroying the minds of the living and the dead that found their way in.

Annabeth was an example enough. Tartarus took her heart and ruined it. Took her emotions from her and took control where she could not. Her hate and her love and her anger and her happiness and her despair and her prosperity were no longer her own, and would change without warning; sometimes within a week, sometimes within a day. Kissing people she hated, assaulting people she loved, lashing out on what always infuriated her, and breaking down at the simplest of wounds.

Her mind couldn't keep up with the changes in her heart, and so her mind broke and let the blood beating in her chest take over her actions. It ruined her.

And alongside her went Perseus. His heart was held on a smaller string in Tartarus' hands. His emotions were never a cause; they stayed a reaction to actions. But the actions were manipulated. Where Tartarus took to a girl with a brain and crippled her heart, he went to a boy with a heart and tore out his brain. His perception, his thoughts, his reaction time, his sight; so much that his mind was connected to was controlled by a monster of an old, old deity.

Percy could only misunderstand and react as he thought best. Took forms of peace as actions of hostility, blew up in conversation, lashed out at the slightest bit of a misstep; sometimes with a sword in hand. His friends and the rest of his company could apply no amount of help when Percy would scream it away and punch it when too close. But his heart fought. His struggle was such. Misunderstanding became his only form of understanding and the world around him was not as accepting. Apologies were accepted, until they were repetitive, until they were stale, until they were ignored.

Percy fought a losing battle, and he kept fighting, until he fought those his heart loved and held and made a valiant effort to kill his friends. It haunted him.

And it followed him, playing with his mind and his eyes and showing falsehoods and lies that were too real and too close to brush off. Death followed him and his mind, and in the relationship, Death was the pet, and Perseus the owner to direct. It came around to remind him that he can live the dream life, but his nights could no longer fantasize. His high days would always be dragged back down by a low night to remind him of who he was and that his wishes would never be met.

And Hestia could do nothing to fix that, could do nothing to separate him and the darkness attempting to entice him. Her presence day and night to remind him someone cared, her touch grounding him to the reality he couldn't discern with his eyes, the life she tried to craft for him to find comfort again and push on in his life; the lies would always be there. Always, in wait, for Perseus to reach out and grip them like truth and accept their reality.

To counter it, he resorted to alcohol. He had grown up over three years of traveling and guiding and caring all while earning the same from a goddess, and to celebrate his 21st took himself drinking. It started as an afterthought, drinking sparingly in celebration as he would cake, and even then only when he had no other company than himself. Guiding demigods to camps continued, spending free days with Hestia continued, life continued, nightmares continued, and to the list he added a drink for celebrations.

Then one night terror played out in his mind, of death and slaughter and brutality and gore and at the center of it all was him, and in his fear and breakdown he turned to a bottle. It numbed him. It eased him. The visions would falter and so would his step but his body would loosen and the hurting would go away and that was all he cared about. And then he forgot it all.

Hestia had played out that night for him the morning after, having watched it start from Olympus but entering too late to stop him from taking the first drink. He was sick for most of that new day, but a hangover was the worst of his troubles. Whatever visions he saw the night before, whatever Tartarus put him through in the dark, was gone from his memory and the pain that came with them nowhere to be found.

He had almost worried Hestia sick to join him in healing and had to promise not to do something so dangerous again. He suffered two more night terrors that month before breaking that promise and turning to the solution of forgetting. It worked again, he got sick again, he got scolded again, but he didn't regret again. It was his only solution to countering Tartarus and everything that came after it, so he dragged it into his life faster than the idea of adopting a puppy.

No matter how it worked, Hestia did not approve. She very adamantly vocalized her dissatisfaction with the plan, but she could not helicopter Percy's life, and the nightmares would often come at the worst of times where she could do nothing to try to be the solution instead of another bottle being who he turned to. He collapsed before he could ever drink the amount that would burn his insides, maybe from the alcohol and his already broken mind overwhelming him into the night, but it did nothing to reassure her that he was alright.

And again she found herself worrying.

" _I am troubled by the attitude of your son, brother._ "

" _So am I._ "

And she wasn't alone.

* * *

The gods had gotten together, as they often don't, to sit on Olympus and watch. The arrival of the creator of all, Chaos him-/herself, was far more to take in then they thought it would ever be. And the arrival of one of the creator's 'soldiers' added on that stress. And the cherry on top was they – he, as it was soon found out – would be staying with Perseus. So from their thrones the Big Six and the rest of the Olympians spent a day watching over the confrontation without interference.

Zeus especially was stressed. He had lived many lifetimes and only in the newest Golden Age did the creator of all make an appearance. Only problem was he/she had come after all between them made their attempts to devour the world and peace as they knew it, and Zeus could not tell where Chaos sided in it all. He wanted to keep an eye on the one the creator would send to their planet, and with him the rest of the council would watch and help him judge the soldier as they were known. His distrust only grew when that fact combined with the presence of Perseus, the boy who had wrecked the camp of demigods and made effort to kill his Roman son. He was insulted to say the very least but he kept himself from stepping forward and meddling in their conversations and the rest of their day.

And when night came the gods watched in short conversation over the still sitting body of Delta, the man in giant armor sitting in Percy's living room. Zeus wanted to truly judge the intent of Chaos and his/her people, and waiting to see if their first course of action was to kill a threat they thought they could get away with wasn't as outlandish as it sounded, even if Zeus was reluctant to acknowledge the danger Percy could be to someone attempting to attack Olympus when he could or would try to protect it.

Many minutes passed watching the new arrival sit about in silence, maybe even asleep since Iris could not put her viewing messages inside the armor, and a few gods grew annoyed.

"We've been sitting here for 12 bloody minutes watching another guy just sit there and do nothing," Ares snarled, crossing his arms over his chest and sinking into his throne. "I came here to watch some bloodshed and if I don't get it soon I'm bailing to start it myself."

"Why are you British again?" Apollo piped up from his own throne. "No one uses bloody in a sentence like that anymore. I thought you were done with that phase."

"Shut it, Miss Daisy. Unless you would like to help me stop my boredom."

"Nah, I'm good."

Artemis huffed as her head fell forward. "Would both of you shut it? Your banter is bothersome."

"Your general presence is bothersome," the god of war countered, leaning in his throne to point at her across the semicircle. "Why the fuck are you not back to scissoring your girl scouts out in the woods?"

"Would you not insinuate something like that so crudely?" Athena butt in to her brother, putting words to the death glare of the huntress. "We are here to judge a potential threat, not bicker."

"Again. Not bicker again." Hermes put up his own had, stretching three lone fingers into the air. "This is the third time he's complaining about anything being boring. We just got done with complaining about dinner, so can we not do this again?"

"Fuck you," Ares spat out the side of his mouth.

"If it will get you to stop talking, I'm all for it."

Apollo chuckled for only a second before it stuck to him in a plague of giggles watching the small banter of war and messages. His sister scoffed at him, muttering under her breath at his childlike and boyish attitude which had caught his ears anyways for him to face her. "Aw, you know you love me, lil' sis."

"I am older than you, Apollo," the goddess of the hunt growled through her teeth.

"I think he means by height," Hephaestus added in the conversation, turning the sun and moon siblings' attention to him, along with a few other distracted gods. The god of the forges sighed and put down the contraption he had been tinkering with in his hands. "Human or godly form, Apollo has always been taller than you. I thought it would have been obvious by now that is what he is talking about."

The sister of the siblings turned back to her bother, whose attention had stayed on the god of forges for several more seconds before turning to his sister and pointing at the flaming god. "Let's go with what he said," the god of the sun and music declared with a nod of his head. The moon goddess sighed in annoyance again, shaking her head in short motions to her brother.

"You know if you ate more cereal you could be taller than him."

The siblings of archery threw their heads back together with a groan. The argument between Hermes and Ares took a pause as the messenger god dropped his head with a sigh and the god of war turned to look at his aunt in disbelief. The god of fire sagged his shoulders and lowered his head in shame, muttering out an, "I am so sorry," as his hands continued to work on the device in his lap.

"Yes, sister, we get it," Hades piped up from his makeshift throne at one end of the line of thrones, "you think everything could be solved with cereal. You made your point about it yesterday and you don't need to go over it again. I'm fairly certain everyone here understands what you need to say."

"Would all of you be quiet!" Heads turned over to the king of the gods, leaned forward in his throne with one hand pressing into his knee and the other shaking in front of his face. "There are more important matters to deal with than who's taller than who!"

"Can we at least change it to Perseus?" Aphrodite cut in, her voice sounding off like a whine. "Chaos' soldier isn't doing anything. For all we know he could be sleeping like that! At least Percy would give us something to look at."

"I second that option," Ares added, head down still as he sighed away Demeter's attitude. "I'd rather watch the brat than this stiff. The sea spawn at least has a personality I can mock."

"Well, you could mock Delta for lacking a personality if you wanted to," Apollo chipped in, and Hermes immediately turned on him: "Didn't we just talk about getting him to shut up?"

"I shoulder still be mocking him for how dumb his name is," Ares snarled, glossing over Hermes' interjection. "His name is just a letter. Who the fuck names their child after a letter?"

Hestia sighed from her hearth as Ares took a tangent in his rant over names. She looked over the Iris message, ported one sided so they could only watch without the other side looking back, as it hovered in the living room of Percy's apartment and fixated itself on the still and sitting form of Chaos' soldier. Despite the brunt rude attitude of Ares, he had a point on the man in armor: he was very straight-faced. He tried very hard to stand professionally and speak seriously, despite the situation he found himself in towering over the people around them when he and Perseus went out for a walk. But he did not seem like a threat, and she could tell that while he was weary, Percy did not act on edge around the armored man, so she could only hope he was making the right call in trusting the man in his company.

"Switch it to Perseus, brother." Hestia turned her head to her brother of the sea, as many others did when he spoke up, while he himself faced his king brother. "We are learning nothing of and from this man. If you truly believe he is dangerous, then checking on Perseus to see how he is handling this situation would be just as beneficial to us. If anything is happening with him we will know we are in danger."

The god of thunder stared down at his sea dominant brother before scoffing and turning to the IM. "Fine. Iris, switch the perspective to Perseus' room."

" _Right away, Lord Zeus_ ," came the diluted reply, rippling the image as its scenery changed…

To Perseus leaning into a wall.

The Olympians shifted in their thrones, and Hestia sank into her seat by the fire. She could see the bottle of alcohol sitting out on his fridge. He was having another episode.

Poseidon was clenching in his throne, gripping hard his trident as he watched his son lean to look out his window. "Is this Tartarus?" he had asked aloud.

"I am afraid so, brother." The god of the sea turned his eyes to his sister of the hearth, soften with his muscles as his mood turned sour and his gaze back on his son.

"That wretched pit has ruined too many good people."

"It makes for good patients," Dionysus brought up with his chin, earning and dismissing the glare the gods of the seas was giving him.

"Tell us what he sees, Dionysus," Zeus commanded. Hestia nodded with the request. While the god of madness could not cure the demigods who had traversed the pit of the Underworld, he could see what tormented their thoughts. Perseus was no exception.

The god of wine sighed. "Fine, but right now there's…" The god threw up a hand in the direction of the live video feed until Perseus turned away from the wall for just a second, and his hand came back down with a frown. "Isn't it my luck you wait until I talk?"

"What did you see, Dionysus?" the king questioned him, getting the wine god to look over to his father.

"Have you ever tried using limbs as gift wrapping?" was the response he had openly given, not to his father but to the rest of the room. Apollo curled his stomach in as he leaned forward.

"That's disgusting and I don't want to think about it."

"I've tried," Hades replied to the question, ignoring the look of terror and despair upon Apollo's face. "They don't function as well. Entrails are more efficient."

"Nope, I'm not listening." The god of the sun clamped his hands over his ears. "I am not at all listening to this."

"Well now Parker has thought about it," Dionysus continued with a gruff voice, gesturing to the sea spawn kneeling on the floor.

"Who of?"

"My mortal sister." The wine god waved a hand around towards Artemis. "Your little lieutenant."

Both Zeus and his daughter showed disgust and anger on their faces looking to Perseus. But Hestia looked to him with pity. He had imagined his cousin many times before, details never fully explained to the hearth goddess when Percy couldn't help but spill his fears and nightmares.

"Why does it have to be my daughter?" the king of Olympus growled.

"I'll do you one better; why is he taking off his shirt?" Hermes pointed out to the demigod struggling to take the clothing off the upper half of his body.

"I'll do you one better; are we really complaining?" Aphrodite tacked on to the conversation, leaning into her hands and towards the IM over Perseus.

"I know I am."

Hades let his face drop into his hand, and for a second Hestia could sympathize with him. "I should have stayed in the Underworld."

"Had we omitted you from this, brother," Hera turned to the lord of the dead, "then your assistance to thoroughly punish those who attempt to destroy us would be harder to initiate sooner."

"I could watch this from my own throne room without the commentary, sister," Hades countered, waving a hand to the other present gods.

"True, but then you would miss out on Dionysus and what he's able to see," Apollo pointed out, moving the attention of the god of the dead and the god of wine on each other.

The madness deity rose an eyebrow to the older god. "Would it help if I called you my favorite uncle?"

"I would doubt that in its entirety."

Dionysus shrugged. "Fair enough." The god turned back to the projection just in time to see jump backwards onto his bed. "And there comes my other mortal sibling."

"Both of my children in one night?" Zeus grunted as lightning danced at his fingertip. "I should smite him for that alone. What is it this time?"

"Can we skip over that part this time?" Apollo pleaded.

Dionysus turned to his father. "Imagine peeling an orange."

"I really don't want to." Apollo threw his head back with a soft cry. "Could you not give me anything to compare to what he saw? And could you not use an orange? Oranges are pure and shouldn't be ruined by this."

"Fine, then imagine string cheese."

"Okay, first of all: _heuuugh_." The sun god curled forward on himself as he mimicked to hurl. "And second: I'm going to need a bucket."

"Why must he imagine my children with such grotesque imagery?" Hestia could see the displeasure upon the king's face. She cut in before he could rant further.

"I believe we came to him in the middle of…Tartarus messing with his mind, brother." Several of the gods turned to the goddess of the hearth, the eyes of her siblings all on her most of all. "I would argue we may have missed a few more hallucinations before we took to watching over young Perseus, not just your children. And I can only worry how many more he was given before we arrived."

Poseidon visibly sagged as his head turned back to his son with other gods before Athena straightened. "He's trying to speak." The wisdom goddess pointed attention to the sea god's child, lying on his bed with a hard effort to stand and speak simultaneously.

Hermes leaned in to the image, turning an ear to the visuals. "…I can't understand what he's trying to say. He's slurring his words too much."

"Grapefruit, who's he talking to?" Ares crossed his arms, directing his attention to Dionysus.

"Hilarious," the god started with a tone of sarcasm. "And he's not talking to anyone." Hestia stilled by the fire, eyes locked on Percy's hunched form as one hand propped him up and the other stuck itself in his pocket. Dionysus continued, "There isn't a vision in the room with him, so the brat's probably talking to himself. Given his choice of a drink he's probably gotten himself drunk enough."

But Hestia didn't believe that. She could see the glare Perseus was throwing across the room, if not from the fire that made his feature then from the skin that still covered him with stern brows and a heavy grin. As he pulled out his trusty pen, clicked it as it extended into the shining Riptide, and he slurred out again as though he had a sentence to speak than just a sound to make. And she could see the other gods catching on quick.

"No, he is directing his attention to something, or someone." Athena stood from her throne, hand sliding along the staff of her spear as she looked to her wine brother. "Are you certain he is not hallucinating anymore?"

"I see nothing in that room other than him, sister."

"Is it Chaos?" Zeus shot up with energy Hestia could have mistaken for excitement had the implications of his question not be so worrying.

"I should hope not." Poseidon did not take to his feet and his brother and niece had, but in his throne he had straightened his posture, watching his son intently as the young man shook and spat out drawn-on words. "This is bad enough as it is, brother. It would be troubling to be worse."

"Then what would you reckon this to be?" Zeus demanded, pointing a thunderous finger at the boy shaking and arming his hands with a sword and a bottle.

Apollo sighed in his throne, pushing himself to his feet slowly. "Again with the outdated words. D, you sure there isn't anything he's imagining in that room with him?"

"Did you not hear me the first time?" Dionysus looked unamused to his godly brother. "Pablo is alone in the room, and he's just talking to himself—"

" _FUCK OFF!_ "

The sound of Percy's voice alongside shattering glass echoed through the throne room, startling the gods distracted enough to let it, and turning eyes to the boy struggling to sneer and keep his eyes open. The sword was still in his hand, but the bottle had gone and stained the wall across the room, right in the direction the son of Poseidon was glaring in.

Hermes turned to face his brother of wine. "You reckon he's telling himself to fuck off or somebody else, now?"

"Hermes, not now," Apollo breathed through closed eyes and pressed lips.

"Iris, bring up Delta!" Zeus commanded, throwing a hand across and over the message. "Show them both!"

The IM rippled again, cutting itself in two and showing both perspectives of Perseus and Delta. The soldier of Chaos was found again still sitting in the common area of the apartment, but his head finally made movement, turning a portion of his body to the staircase and the hallucinating demigod they led to. Then both moved, Delta rising to his feet and pulling out of his armor an extendable sword as he approached the stairs, and Perseus stomping around his bed and out his room to meet the soldier half way with fire in his eyes smoking with intensity.

The start of their standoff was the last Hestia saw in the IM projection before she burned away to see it in person.

* * *

She saw the whole of it. Percy's demands. Delta's hesitation. The small steps approaching one another. Delta's true face. Percy's change in attitude. Percy's departure for the night. She sat quietly through the conversation, knowing her own presence would stop her brother from striking the apartment down without hesitation, and when it ended made her presence known. She spoke only briefly with Delta – revealing his name to be Cage before Percy hid back in his room – and left him with a small comment on his looks.

Because she saw Percy's face when he saw him too. When he looked to Cage and saw the face of another demigod, and one who sacrificed himself to keep Percy alive. She saw the dark blue flames of his eyes brighten in color as though he was happy to see a familiar face, but the rest of his features betrayed that idea as he turned away again. As he saw another friend for the night, and one that he knew was gone.

And so Hestia stood with him in his room, locking the door quietly behind her as he sat at the foot of his bed in silence. His face staring down to the floor, sword leaning against his leg and an empty bottle hanging from his other hand. He tried hard to keep his expression flat but from the side Hestia could see his frown and how the way he sat looked tired and unable to do more.

" _Be cautious, sister_ ," the voice of her king of a brother sounded off in her head. " _He could still lash out and if he harms you it will be his last action._ "

" _He is hurting, brother,_ " Poseidon's voice interjected. " _We can restrain him if we must, but we do not have to go to the extent of killing him._ "

" _That does not change how dangerous he can be, especially if Tartarus is speaking to him. You saw him as well as I did. He spoke to someone, and they gave him an order to kill the solider. It can very well be that primordial planting seeds in his head._ "

" _We've been sitting around our thrones for half an hour watching Chaos' soldier and waiting for him to kill my son, but you're willing to turn on him too at the drop of a hat?_ "

" _Your_ son _is an unstable mess and he has been for years. I've let him live to keep the two of you at peace and pardon me that I regret it every day._ "

" _Brothers, please_ ," Hestia interrupted before their bickering could continue. " _Zeus, I understand your concern and I am flattered at your need to look out for me, but I assure you Percy will do no such thing to me. You may ease your worries from that._ "

" _And how are you certain of that? He is still capable with his sword and his powers, and now Chaos has given him more. He is a threat!_ "

" _He is a threat to himself_ ," the hearth goddess added solemnly. " _He can only hold out so long until the horrors of Tartarus come rushing back into his mind and he is forced to rest again._ " She took a hand to his hair, running it through the dim blond wisps that Chaos had given him, and to it he made no reaction. " _We cannot get rid of his nightmares. No one can. And we cannot wipe his memory and them with. We'd only leave him with nightmares he wouldn't understand but hurt him still. He is of no use to a higher enemy, even if brainwashed. And had Tartarus been here just now, we would have known. We would have felt him here. I would have felt him when I arrived. But all I feel is Perseus. All I feel is his pain._ " The goddess sat herself beside the demigod, hand resting in his hair as she kept her eyes on him. " _We can only try to help him heal, brother._ "

Zeus kept himself quiet for the minute that followed, and Poseidon no doubt was watching him if he hadn't made a comment of his own.

" _That boy is a pain in my side_ ," Zeus growled in his return.

" _He's a pain in your side that's fought to keep us alive,_ " the sea god brought up again, his voice less than enthusiastic and probably distant if Hestia could guess right.

" _And he's fought to kill us_."

" _Not us, brother. Only the demigods. Percy has told me of his nightmares before, and he has not once mentioned any ill will or thoughts to Olympus._ " Hestia slid her hand down from his hair, resting it on his shoulder.

" _That doesn't make him any better, sister. It only proves how dangerous he is._ " The god of thunder went quiet again, save for the distant mumbling that played in Hestia's ear. " _This is the last time I let his violent nature pass. The next time he plays himself as a threat I will step in, and that is final. Keep him in line, sister._ " Thunder boomed in the skyline outside, and finally Perseus reacted, turning his neck an inch or two to gaze out the window.

A hum rumbled in the goddess' head. " _Thank you for being there for my son, sister,_ " Poseidon's voice came through. " _I would intervene if I could, but you know how Zeus is with direct contact to our own children…_ "

" _It is no problem, brother_ ," Hestia replied softly. " _You know several on the council wish to meet with him too. We are all here for him. He had done much for us_."

" _I only wish we could do more for him._ " The passing of his breath played in her head. " _The rest of the council has already parted. Hephaestus had quite the reaction to that soldier's face, and I can see the resemblance. Artemis should be towing the moon along tonight, Hades returned to his own domain, and the rest have followed suit to their own stays and duties. I guess I should as well._ " A rumbling echoed in the back of her head. " _Keep my son safe. Good night, sister._ "

" _Good night, brother_." A wave crashed in her ears, and with that swept her brother's voice and presence away. The goddess kept her eyes on the demigod beside her, and the hand on his shoulder squeezed softly. "Perseus." The demigod made no reply or action in response, his face still turned to the window of his room. The hand slid down his back, resting along the higher end of his spine. "It's me, Perseus. I'm here." His head turned slowly and it turned down, his gaze meeting the floor again before turning some more to look at her without meeting her own eyes. "Can you hear me, Perseus?"

The demigod's lips parted, presenting the red stars of teeth Chaos had given him. His eyebrows bounced, shifting around the expression on his face. "You…you're wearing them," were the words that came out, just louder than a whisper as he spoke.

The goddess smiled softly. "I told you I would if you bought them for me."

His head rose more and with it a hand, reaching over towards Hestia, and she moved her other hand to meet it. But he didn't go for her hand, instead passing it up and resting it on her arm, brushing along the sleeves of her jacket and brushing the fabric around with his fingers. "…You did."

The hand she extended to his rose, brushing up his chin and cupping against his cheek. "I wouldn't break a promise to you, Percy." Her thumb traced the skin under the star of his eye. "You're my friend. I wouldn't lie to a friend."

"Friend…" Percy's fingers froze against the arm of her jacket, and for a second his head rose closer to her eyes before dropping again. "Friend…C-Charlie was a friend…" Hestia could hear the water in his throat as he gulped. His eyes blinked in rapid segments, but no tears fell from his eyes. "Charlie…he-he was a…a friend…" His body shivered and his eyes closed as his mouth gasped for air and Hestia pulled him closer.

The demigod shivered and choked back tears against the shoulder of the goddess who wrapped her arms around him. The bottle of his other hand dropped to the floor between his feet and came around Hestia from the side, holding to her as she did him, with his other hand still holding her arm. The goddess sighed a breath into his hair where she leaned in, using the hand he was close to holding stroke through the flaming locks. "He was a good friend to you, Perseus. He helped to keep you alive."

The son of Poseidon sniffed. "He-he did…b-but I…I saw—"

"That was not him, Perseus." The goddess dragged her fingers down the back of his neck. "He passed on and tried for rebirth. He and Selina both. They're trying for the Isles together, remember?" The demigod didn't vocalize his response, but she could feel the nod of his head against his jacket. "He's happy. He wanted you to be too. Many of us want you to be. We are here for you."

"Y-you are…you…" Percy's voice trailed away as his grip on her softened. His breathing was balancing out as his throat was no longer clogged, and through his soft exhales Hestia knew he was passing out. She made no attempt to keep him awake, gingerly touching his skin and scalp as he lost to sleep.

When his hand let go of his arm, she leaned to the side, dropping herself slowly with Perseus in tow to lie down on the bed. Her arms snaked away from his skin, resting his head gently onto the mattress and eased his onto his back. The demigod hummed in his sleep, twitching his fingers with the short grunts he made in his throat.

The goddess looked around the room, spotting the sword as it disappeared and returned itself to his pocket no doubt, and the two empty bottles sitting about the room along with the stain of another on the wall. The goddess sighed at the three-count and waved her hand along, with each bottle and the mess vanishing in an instant. Once again the drink had gotten to him before she did. It was disheartening to know.

The goddess turned to the boy of water and fire sleeping beside her, head turned to its side to face where she sat. She watched him sleep, chest rising and falling as he breathed, hands twitching and brows furrowing as he dreamed, mouth whispering as he tried to bring the dream out.

She leaned down to him, hovering a second over his head before touching her lips down on his forehead. A soft kiss planted itself there before she sat herself back up and ran a hand through the fire in his hair. "Sleep well, Perseus. We will be here for you."

The demigod hummed again in his sleep, brushing his arm down to where she was. But in a flash of embers and light she was gone, and Perseus was left in the night with the warmth of her presence still washing over him.


End file.
